Tottenham Seek First Points Against Nottingham Forest

Tottenham head back into Premier League combat still empty-handed, chasing their first points of the season on a tricky trip to Nottingham Forest – and they do it with a squad patched together more than polished.

Roberto De Zerbi has not hidden his frustration. He believes the club’s pre-season tour has left his players undercooked, the schedule biting into fitness levels just when intensity should be peaking. The evidence is all over the treatment room.

Even the new faces have not escaped. Big-money arrival Savio, an £85m signing from Manchester City, has already had a spell out with a muscle problem. He lit up his debut against Charlton last week, coming off the bench to score and assist, a glimpse of exactly what that fee is supposed to buy. Then training struck him down again, ruling him out of the defeat to Newcastle.

Now, at least, there is some relief. De Zerbi confirmed Savio is back and available, a badly needed injection of pace and imagination for a side still waiting to click.

The main worry, though, is James Maddison. The playmaker fractured his shoulder on the opening weekend against Brentford, a brutal early blow to Spurs’ creative core. He sat out the Newcastle loss and remains a major doubt for the trip to the City Ground, leaving De Zerbi to reshuffle his attacking plans once more.

There is fresh blood on paper, if not fully on the pitch. Deadline-day arrivals Mykhailo Mudryk and Tosin Adarabioyo have both been registered in time for the weekend. Only one of them, though, is involved. Adarabioyo misses out on the matchday squad entirely, his debut delayed.

Mudryk does make it, but with a huge asterisk. The winger has not played a competitive game since November 2024 after serving a doping ban, and De Zerbi has been blunt about his condition: at best, the Ukrainian has 30 minutes in his legs. He starts on the bench, an impact option rather than a headline act.

So Tottenham arrive at Forest still searching for rhythm, juggling absences and half-fit stars, hoping that somewhere between Savio’s return, Mudryk’s cameo and a reshuffled attack, those first points finally arrive.