Nottingham Forest 0-0 Tottenham: goalless draw leaves both sides still winless

Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur played out a goalless draw on Saturday afternoon, with neither side able to find the breakthrough that would have kick-started their season at the third attempt.

The point apiece spared Forest a second defeat of the campaign and Tottenham a third, but it did little for either club's early momentum. According to the Premier League table, both remain winless after three rounds of fixtures, and it is Tottenham who carry the more uncomfortable statistic from the weekend: Spurs are now one of only three sides in the division yet to score a single goal this term.

The story in the standings

Forest had opened the campaign with a defeat and a draw; Spurs had lost their first two. The stalemate leaves Nottingham Forest 16th on two points — two draws and a defeat from three matches, two goals scored and three conceded — while Tottenham collected the first point of their campaign to sit 17th, one place and one point behind, with no goals at the right end and five at the wrong one.

It is a return of two points from a possible nine for Forest and one from nine for Tottenham — thin rewards for three rounds of work, and grounds for early unease at both clubs.

Against the market

The result was also a mild upset against the pre-match odds, which had Forest as narrow favourites at 2.20 with Tottenham close behind at 3.10. The draw, priced at 3.30, was the least fancied of the three outcomes — and it was the one that materialised. Early-season prices are an inexact science at the best of times, and this was a reminder that a favoured tag counts for little once the game is under way.

FanTribe's prediction data tells a similar story. Every fan who called this fixture backed a Nottingham Forest win: 100 per cent of predictions went for the home side, with neither the draw nor a Tottenham victory attracting any support. The sample was a modest one — a single prediction in total — but the lone Forest optimist was still left wanting, as the goalless draw landed the only outcome that received no backing at all.

What it means

• Both sides remain winless after three matches, according to the Premier League table.
• Tottenham are still without a goal — one of only three clubs in the division yet to score.
• Forest sit 16th on two points, one place and one point ahead of Spurs.
• The draw was the outsider of the three outcomes, priced at 3.30 pre-match.

With three rounds of the season complete, the table has already begun to settle into early patterns, and neither of these two clubs will care for the one they are in. The priorities now are bluntly obvious: a first win apiece, and — most urgently in Tottenham's case — a first goal. Neither arrived on Saturday.