Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest have a lot of bad blood between them heading into Sunday's must win Premier League relegation six pointer. Spurs have just a few points on Forest in the table, and they are not going to take that slim lead for granted. After drawing Liverpool and beating Atletico Madrid, who are both into the Champions League quarterfinals, Spurs believe they are slowly finding their footing again under Igor Tudor.
Forest recently had two former Tottenham managers in Ange Postecoglou and Nuno Espirito Santo, and while those guys are bigger names, it has been Vitor Pereira who has suddenly turned Forest into a pretty tricky side to face.
Tottenham cannot afford to slip, because every mistake brings them closer to the nightmare of being a relegated Big Six club. Spurs especially cannot afford to slip against Forest, who are right there nipping at their heels. And after Evangelos Marinakis blocked Tottenham from the Morgan Gibbs-White signing in the summer transfer window, there would be an even more humilitating feeling at the thought of losing to Forest and then getting relegated by them in the end.
Nottingham Forest rested their stars before Tottenham
At mid week, Tottenham played their key players in a difficult second leg against Atletico Madrid, and though they did win, they did not complete the comeback and were eliminated. Nottingham Forest, meanwhile, benched almost all of their stars for the match against Midtjylland, but then brought them on in the second half as they came from behind to win on penalties.
The fact that Forest cared enough to rest their key players in a crucial second leg Europa League knockout tie that they were still very much in, down 1-0 on aggregate coming into the game, was a huge statement of intent from Marinakis, Pereira, and the organization that they are coming for Tottenham. Their No. 1 goal is to stay alive and relegated Spurs in the process.
So the additional fact that Forest still won, bringing on stars Elliot Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White in the second half (among several other key players), is just added motivation for Tottenham to not screw this up and to put Forest in their place.
Tottenham are the bigger club, and they need to show it on Sunday. Forest are through to the next round, and while Spurs faced a much tougher opponent in Atleti, the reality is that they are out of their European competition. Now, the onus is on them to win.