Premier League make Nottingham Forest and Tottenham call that’s bound to cause controversy

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Nottingham Forest travel down to London on Monday to face Tottenham Hotspur, but a Premier League decision ahead of the clash will already have heads spinning.

Forest could do with a confidence booster after two consecutive defeats and Monday could provide just that, given that Forest beat Spurs on Boxing Day in the reverse fixture.

After a rare error by Murillo against Everton resulted in a loss at the City Ground last time out, the Reds have dropped to fourth in the Premier League table, still in control of their Champions League destiny but with Manchester City, Chelsea and Aston Villa breathing down their necks.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	32	23	7	2	74	31	43	76
2	ArsenalArsenal	32	17	12	3	57	27	30	63
3	NewcastleNewcastle	32	18	5	9	61	40	21	59
4	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	32	17	6	9	51	38	13	57
5	Man CityManchester City	32	16	7	9	62	42	20	55
6	ChelseaChelsea	32	15	9	8	56	39	17	54

A boost has already come in the form of Heung-min Son being unavailable for Spurs due to injury, but the Premier League’s announcement on the fixture is far from exciting.

Nottingham Forest learn referee decision for Tottenham clash

Given Evangelos Marinakis’ VAR rant in December, it’s hard to think of a referee that Forest would prefer to see in charge for a game, but the selected official for the Tottenham match has recent history with Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.

Announced by the Premier League, Peter Bankes will referee Monday’s game, with Tony Harrington as fourth official and John Brooks on VAR.

Bankes gave Newcastle a controversial penalty against Forest in February but more recently, the Premier League official was in charge of the Reds’ FA Cup quarter-final when Forest had a penalty overturned, making Bankes a less than popular figure at the City Ground.

All may not be lost for Forest, though, as while Bankes has made recent errors that have impacted Espirito Santo’s side, his record when refereeing the Reds is surprisingly positive.

Peter Bankes has been Nottingham Forest’s lucky charm

Forest are no strangers to referee errors from Bankes or otherwise, but when delving further into the data, it turns out that the Lancashire-born official has actually been a part of plenty of positive results for the Reds.

Alongside the FA Cup win over Brighton this season, Bankes also officiated Forest’s 3-0 win over Wolves in January, contributing to 11 Forest wins in his 23 matches in charge.

In fact, these 11 wins actually make Forest the team he has refereed to victory the most in his career, joint with Sheffield United.

To compare, Bankes has only refereed six Tottenham wins so there is a slight omen in the way of Forest for Monday, if fans can look past his errors so far this season.