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The reports are in, which means that’s all from me. Thanks for your company and comments – sorry I couldn’t use them all – and for bearing with me technical issues. Do join Rob for Chelsea v Man City, and Scott for the final round of the Masters, but otherwise, peace out.
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On which point, there’s only a goal of goal difference between the sides, Spurs on -11 against Forest’s -12. Things could get even tighter than they are now, and it’s also worth noting Vitor Pereira’s men are, until Thursday night at least, still in Europe.
Scanning those, I think West Ham will be OK – they can win a couple of those games, at least. Forest, meantime, must beat Burnley at the weekend and, if they do, will have a great chance – especially as Brighton have four wins and a draw in their last five. I can see Spurs beating Leeds and Everton, if I squint hard, but should Forest win next weekend they’ll probably need one more victory, and I’d not back them away against anyone.
Nottingham Forest: Burnley (h), Sunderland (a), Chelsea (a), Newcastle (h), Man United (a).
West Ham United: Palace (a), Everton (h), Brentford (a), Arsenal (h), Newcastle (a), Leeds (h).
Tottenham Hotspur: Brighton (h), Wolves (a), Villa (a), Leeds (h), Chelsea (a), Everton (h).
Updated at 11.13 EDT
Spurs are deep in the brown, ill-smelling stuff; I’d say that, for the first time, them going down looks the likeliest outcome. Let’s have a look at the games to come…
Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi. Photograph: Scott Heppell/ReutersShare
Updated at 11.26 EDT
Also going on:
The Premier League table
Photograph: GuardianShareFULL TIME: Sunderland 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur
When you’re down, life kicks you, and Mukiele’s deflected shot is enough to keep Spurs in the bottom three, without a league win in 2026. With six games to go, they’re two points away from safety.
Sunderland players celebrate after the match. Photograph: Lee Smith/Action Images/ReutersShare
Updated at 11.10 EDT
We’re over time now, and it’s nearly 14 league games without a win for Spurs, who are subsiding to relegatioin.
Sunderland give it away and Spurs cross from the right, but to no one; with a minute left, Sunderland are almost there, and when Porro crosses seconds later, the flag goes up.
ShareFULL TIME: Crystal Palace 2-1 Newcastle United
Big trouble for Eddie Howe.
Jean-Philippe Mateta of Crystal Palace Photograph: Sebastian Frej/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 11.17 EDT
“Any Spurs manager who doesn’t start Xavi Simons is setting themselves up to fail,” says Joshua Keeling. “He is their one high-class creative talent, in a team that consistently struggles to make chances.”
Broadly, I’d agree with that. Their best moments, such that there’ve been any of late, seem to come through him. We said at the start we couldn’t see how they’d conjure scoring opportunities, and they’ve struggled to so to throughout this game.
ShareGOAL! Crystal Palace 2-1 Newcastle United (Mateta pen)
Mateta only came on after 65 minutes, but he’s scored twice and looks to have won the points for his team. Newcastle are struggling to make Europe now, 14th behind Palace on goal difference if the score stays the same.
SharePENALTY TO PALACE WITH A MINUTE LEFT OF INJURY TIME!
I’m not sure how it happened, but Mateta will take…
ShareFULL TIME: Nottingham Forest 1-1 Aston Villa
Forest move three points away from Spurs and one clear of West Ham in a game they might’ve lost; a win over Burnley in their next league game, and they’ll feel pretty confident of surviving.
Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/ReutersShare
Updated at 11.18 EDT
Sunderland clear the corner, but they’re pinned back niw, looking to see out the 1-0.
Spurs win a free-kick near the by-line and Porro teases it in, but Roefs is there to catch … except he bungles the effort, doing well to see the ball go over the bar for a corner.
We’re playing the second of four additional minutes at City Ground; at Sunderland, it’s the first of 11.
“My stance,” says Zach Neeley of Brobbey’s push, “is that if you engage in a bit of the dark arts and it ends up injuring the other player (see Sergio Ramos on Salah in the Champions League final) that’s on you, the fact that you ‘didn’t mean to hurt anyone’ is valid but the injury is still your fault.”
In law, they call this the thin skull rule; I guess I tend to listen to the pros in these situations, as they understand them better than I do and, for what its worth, Don Goodman didn’t see much amiss. Football is a contact sport, the whereabouts of the lines are unclear, and if there’s no wild action or malign intent, which there wasn’t, I’d have a hard time blaming the player.
ShareGOAL! Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle United (Mateta 80)
Mitchell, today becoming the youngest man to make 200 appearances for Palace, clips a cut-back on to Mateta’s head and the finish is deft, across Ramsdale and into the net.
Jean-Philippe Mateta of Crystal Palace celebrates with the fans. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 10.55 EDT
Villa have been the better team in Nottingham, especially in the second half, and when Tielemans collects a cross, he opts not to have a swift swat with his left foot, instead seeking a better opportunity only for the ball to run away from him. But they soon fashion a further shooting opportunity, Cash’s effort tipped behind, and the corner causes minor panic before the ball bounces kindly for Sels, who collects.
Here come Sunderland again, Van de Ven blocking from Rigg after a swift interchange; he’s then replaced by Talbi, with Hume coming on for Mukiele.
A second Sunderland goal now looks more likely than a Spurs equaliser. Next for De Zerbi’s men: Brighton (h).
Triple change for Villa, Luiz, Maatsen ad Buendia replacing Barkley, Rogers and Digne. And almost immediately, Buendia chops a pass that zips into Watkins’ path, perhaps fortuitously, the eventuating shot flying over the bar.
Sunderland counter and, when Diarra marauds through the inside-left channel and squares for Brobbey, Udogie does really well to lever him out of the road, preventing a potentially match-clinching goal in the process.
“That push from Brobbey probably wasn’t a booking,” emails Richard Coopey, “but he knew exactly what he was doing and that was a snide, nasty bit of play.”
Harsh, I think – it was a shove looking to con the ref, but I don’t think he thought anyone would get hurt.
“After the deflected goal De Zerbi had a look that said: ‘So this is what it’s like to manage Spurs’,” reckons Kári Tulinius. “I can sort of see the bones of what he’s trying to get Tottenham to do, stretching the game, creating space and attacking at speed, but the players are still having to think before doing. There just isn’t much time to graft the muscles onto that skeleton.”
Yup, it’s a tricky one. At this point, the ideal is probably a vibes manager, not a systems manager, but the board probably think De Zerbi can do the job permanently, so have gone for him on that basis, hoping to stay up and assuming, if they don’t, that under him, there’s a better than decent chance they come straight back up again.
Updated at 10.37 EDT
Oh man, Romero won’t be able to continue and he’s leaving the pitch, tears in his eyes. It didn’t look a bad injury – a dead-leg type thing – but he wants to be on the pitch, and now he isn’t, replaced by Danso.
The great Rob Smyth is under way with Chelsea v Man City…
Vila are on the attack in Nottingham, Sels shoving out a cross that falls nicely into the path of Rogers … who sends his shot screeching over the bar.