Tottenham's Richarlison wiped out for showboating vs Forest | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur continued their strong start to the season with a 2-0 win at Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon.

Spurs are really doubling down on their status as Premier League dark horses under Antonio Conte as they navigated what could have been a tricky excursion to the City Ground.

In the end, the ruthless finishing of Harry Kane proved to be the difference as his bobbling effort in the opening minutes and close-range header in the dying moments ultimately killed off Forest.

Richarlison makes an impact

That is, of course, despite the fact that he produced a rare penalty miss in the second-half when Dean Henderson saved his second spot-kick in as many home league games.

However, one other Spurs player who is undoubtedly worthy of praise for his performance along the Trent was summer signing Richarlison as he once again made a big impact off the bench.

The Brazilian is going to face a serious uphill battle competing with Kane, Heung-min Son and Dejan Kulusevski this season, but boy is he doing his upmost to win over Conte’s favour.

And you certainly couldn’t have missed his latest eye-catching performance as a substitute, turning on the skills to both turn provider for Kane and to wind up Forest players late on.

Firstly, Richarlison laid on the assist for Kane’s game-sealing goal when he cut the Forest defence in half with an outside-of-the-boot delivery that Ricardo Quaresma would have been proud of.

Richarlison turns on the showboating

Secondly, well, the showboating came out as Richarlison lived up to his villain status by deciding to start playing keepy-ups mid-game for absolutely no reason at all.

And while he initially got away with his bout of cheekiness as he proceeded to juggle away happy as Larry, he did incur the wrath of Neco Williams and Brennan Johnson just a few seconds later.

That’s because a combination of the Forest duo ensured that Richarlison was reminded how that sort of behaviour is dealt with in the Premier League as he was quickly chopped down to the ground.

All in all, it made for an amusing few seconds in which Richarlison consolidated his status as one of the division’s leading pantomime villains, so be sure to check out his shenanigans down below:

Depending on how you feel about this sort of thing it’s either brilliant and ingenious or brainless and infuriating.

Do you love it or hate it?

As far as we concerned, we’ve got a bit of love for both aspects of the situation here because it’s always entertaining to see a flash of showboating every now and again just as it is fascinating to see a little bit of revenge being enacted as a result

At the end of the day, there will always be an element of gamesmanship in the Premier League and few players channel that so unabashedly as Richarlison.

Whether that’s through the medium of mid-game keepy-ups or cheeky post-match tweets, you can always rely on the former Watford and Everton man to leave more than a few of his rivals throwing a paddy.

As such, it’s hard not to think of him fitting in at Tottenham hand in glove because that’s exactly the sort of edge, spite and grittiness that Conte loves to see from his players.

It just so happens to inspire an inexplicable desire to go and crop him down if you’re playing for the opposition. Even the most saintly of footballers has got to put their hands up and admit that.