Roberto De Zerbi believes the quality in Tottenham's attack is too good not to score many goals, despite failing to find the back of the net once again in the Premier League.

Spurs were held to a goalless draw at Nottingham Forest as they await their first win of the season, though they could have come away with nothing at the City Ground.

Omar Marmoush squandered the visitors' best chance in the first half, firing wide of the left post after getting the better of Neco Williams in a promising attacking position. 

Antonin Kinsky then had to be on his toes at the other end to deny Morgan Gibbs-White, but the defining moment in the match came in the 66th minute. 

Gibbs-White's shot looped off Kinsky and as Sandro Tonali attempted to clear, Williams steamed in to bundle the ball home, but the goal was ruled out after a VAR review, with the Forest wing-back deemed to have handled the ball into the net. 

From there, neither side was able to find a winner, with Spurs failing to win each of their opening three matches of a Premier League season for the first time since 2015-16.

In addition, Spurs have now failed to score in three successive top-flight games for the first time since November 2021, while it is the first time a De Zerbi side has failed to do so in Europe's top five leagues since Brighton in January 2024.

De Zerbi, however, was not fazed by his team's lack of attacking output, telling BBC Match of the Day: "In terms of performance, I am very, very proud. I'm delighted to watch my players fight like this. We didn't risk conceding goals. 

"We are working now, because we started last Thursday, very happy with the spirit, the attitude, the behaviour of the players. This is our way, great qualities of the players.

"The human level of the dressing room is great, now we have to work and improve at all levels of football. Our mood is to win, to win, to win.

"But I think we have to stay calm to keep the confidence. Then I think we have players good enough to score many goals, like [Dominic] Solanke, Savio, [Omar] Marmoush."

Spurs finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 1.57 from their 12 attempts compared to Forest's tally of 0.65 from the same number of shots. 

However, Spurs failed to have a shot on target. It was the first time in a Premier League match they failed to do so since April 2022 against Brentford under Antonio Conte.

There were positives for De Zerbi to take, with Mohammed Kudus returning after a long injury lay-off, while Destiny Udogie was brought in for his first start of the season. 

De Zerbi was forced to replace both Udogie and Savio as they continued to manage their minutes, though the Spurs boss said that the substitutions affected his team's momentum. 

"In the second half, I'm sorry because the medical team pushed to change Savio and Destiny Udogie after 60 minutes," De Zerbi added.

"[Mohammed] Kudus and [Andy] Robertson played very well, but maybe two substitutions at that moment were not so good, but now we cannot take risks again to injure Savio, he is too important to us and the same [with] Destiny.

"Maybe we lost some balance, some connection. We have to respect Nottingham Forest because they always played second balls and long balls."

It's been a busy summer at Spurs, with 10 new faces arriving at the club, including the big-money arrivals of Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Savio and Jan Paul van Hecke. 

Spurs are aiming to improve after back-to-back 17th-place finishes in the Premier League, and De Zerbi was asked whether he had the necessary tools to succeed. 

"I'm very happy with the transfer market, I think the club, the sporting director and the CEO worked on it very, very well with ambition and clear ideas," De Zerbi said.

"Now we have to work because, in football, you cannot ask for time but without time you can do nothing."