Tottenham crisis deepens after loss to Forest as Arsenal, Man City battle in League Cup final

By Canadian Press on March 22, 2026.

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Tottenham’s Premier League survival fight was plunged deeper into crisis on Sunday with a 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest.

The relegation six-pointer left Spurs one place and one point above the drop zone and raised further questions about the future of coach Igor Tudor.

Fellow relegation-fighting Forest climbed above Spurs to 16th in the standings. The only positive on another miserable day for Tottenham was defeat for West Ham at Aston Villa to keep it in the bottom three.

Tottenham – one of English soccer’s most iconic teams and a founding member of the Premier League – is still without a win in the top flight in 2026. Its last win was Dec. 28 and it has lost six of its last seven games.

Igor Jesus’ header just before halftime gave Forest the lead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Morgan Gibbs-White added a second just after the hour mark.

Taiwo Awoniyi completed the win for Forest in the 87th to leave the fans fearing the end of its ever-present stay in England’s top division since the inception of the Premier League in 1992.

Tudor was appointed last month to try to turn Spurs’ season around, but has lost five of his seven games in charge in all competitions and seen his team eliminated from the Champions League.

Tottenham remains one point above 18th-place West Ham, which lost 2-0 to Aston Villa.

Villa boosted its chances of Champions League qualification and took advantage of all of its immediate rivals dropping points.

John McGinn and Ollie Watkins were on target at Villa Park. Villa is fourth and five points above fifth-place Liverpool, which was beaten by Brighton on Saturday.

Chelsea, which lost at Everton, is a point further back.

Victory also saw Villa close the gap on third-place Manchester United, which drew with Bournemouth on Friday.

Sunderland stuns Newcastle

Brian Brobbey struck in the 90th minute to give Sunderland bragging rights in the Tyne-Wear derby against Newcastle.

Brobbey’s close-range effort sealed a 2-1 comeback win at St James’ Park and saw Sunderland complete a league double over its fiercest rival.

Sunderland also moved above Newcastle into 11th in the standings.

Anthony Gordon had given the home team the lead after capitalizing on sloppy passing at the back and firing low past Melker Ellborg after 10 minutes.

Chemsdine Talbi leveled shortly before the hour mark and Brobbey stunned the home fans when scoring at the second time of asking late on.

Earlier, the game had been halted due to a report of discriminatory abuse from the crowd towards Sunderland’s Lutsharel Geertruida.

Before kickoff, there had been tense scenes between fans outside the stadium. Northumberland police said one arrest was made.

Relegation-fighting Tottenham and Nottingham Forest were playing later on Sunday. Aston Villa was taking on another team trying to avoid the drop – West Ham.

Arsenal and Manchester City were playing for the first major piece of domestic silverware this season in the English League Cup final at Wembley.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

James Robson, The Associated Press

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