Tottenham Hotspur entertain direct Premier League relegation rivals Nottingham Forest on Sunday, looking to ensure their 2025/26 season does not fail to live up to its early promise.
What started as a dream for Thomas Frank, who won three of his first four league games in charge of the North London powerhouse, soon turned into a nightmare that Spurs fans have yet to wake up from.
Frank is already part of Tottenham’s history, but his successor, Igor Tudor, has been unable to turn the club’s fortunes around, and he is running out of time to reverse their downward spiral.
Spurs no longer have to worry about the distraction of European football, as they fell to a 7-5 aggregate loss to Atletico Madrid in their Champions League last-16 tie despite a 3-2 home win on Wednesday.
If it’s any consolation, the Croatian manager finally entered the win column, having lost his first four games in the dugout before pulling off a morale-boosting 1-1 draw against Liverpool last weekend.
Despite Spurs’ mini-revival, Tudor, who recently hinted at James Maddison’s highly-awaited return from injury towards the end of the season (via [ESPN](https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/soccer/igor-tudor-reveals-james-maddison-could-make-tottenham-return-this-season/ar-AA1Z43Ga?ocid=BingNewsVerp)), is not out of the woods yet.
Tottenham commence this round level on points with 17th-placed Forest and only one clear of 18th-placed West Ham United, highlighting the weight of the upcoming clash in North London.
Desperate to avoid the ignominy of their first relegation from England’s top flight since the 1970s, Spurs will be out to post their first league victory since beating Crystal Palace on Boxing Day.
With that in mind, Tudor’s next and only objective is to halt Tottenham’s longest winless stretch in league football since 1935, with the struggling London giants failing to win any of their last 12 Premier League outings (D5, L7).
Failed attempts to beat bottom-three sides Burnley and West Ham during that embarrassing sequence serve as stark reminders that Tudor’s charges cannot afford to take anything for granted here.
However, the impending return to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is not necessarily a positive thing for last season’s Europa League winners, given that they’ve won just one Premier League home game since the end of August (D4, L9).
In fact, Spurs have accumulated a league-low ten home points this season (W2, D4, L9), losing their last three top-flight matches here while conceding at least two goals on each occasion.
Ramifications of another poor result could be severe, potentially plunging Tottenham into the relegation zone, not to mention the psychological blow it would deal to a squad already low on confidence.
Failure is no longer an option for Tudor, who’s already walking a tightrope, but Forest are no idle threat, even though the visitors’ sobering six-game winless league streak could suggest otherwise (D3, L3).
Indeed, the Tricky Trees are still waiting for their first Premier League win under new boss Vitor Pereira (D2, L2), whose track record against Tottenham can certainly inspire confidence among travelling fans.
Pereira has never lost a managerial clash against Spurs (W1, D2), and he already oversaw a draw against the Londoners earlier this season while in charge of relegation-bound Wolverhampton Wanderers.
As if that’s not concerning enough for Tottenham, they have lost each of their last three league matches against Forest, including a 2-1 defeat in this corresponding fixture last season.
Meanwhile, Tudor’s fate in the capital may rest on Richarlison’s shoulders.
Fresh off sealing Spurs’ draw at Anfield, Richarlison will be [looking to maintain his strong Premier League form](https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2026/march/stats-richarlison-looking-to-continue-strong-record-vs-forest/) against Pereira’s side, as the hosts aim to avenge a chastening 3-0 loss in December’s reverse fixture.