Tottenham's Struggles Continue as Pressure Mounts on De Zerbi
Tottenham’s season keeps spiralling and the questions around Roberto De Zerbi are getting louder by the week.
Another defeat, this time a 3-2 loss at home to Aston Villa on Saturday, leaves Spurs still searching for their first Premier League win of the campaign and stuck in the relegation zone heading into the international break. The pressure isn’t easing. It’s building.
Same story, different weekend
Tottenham have now lost to Villa, Brentford and Newcastle United, with only draws against Nottingham Forest and Everton to show for their efforts. For a club that has spent over £300m across the last two seasons to avoid exactly this kind of trouble, the sight of the table makes grim reading.
They have finished 17th in each of the past two campaigns. Right now, they are on course to be dragged into the same fight again.
What makes it worse is that the pattern is becoming predictable.
Spurs started well on Saturday. For half an hour, they looked like a side with a plan. Danny Murphy, watching on for the BBC, saw enough in that spell to offer some rare praise.
“In the first half-hour they showed good intensity, controlled the tempo of the game and created a few chances – not great chances but shots that forced the keeper into a couple of good saves,” the former Tottenham midfielder said.
The crowd responded. The tempo was high. The pressing worked. Spurs won the ball back in advanced areas and Villa struggled to settle.
Then the familiar drift set in.
Murphy pointed to the same flaw that has haunted them all season. “As has happened in weeks previous, they’ve let the opposition grow into the game and gain confidence,” he said.
The turning point came right on the stroke of half-time. With Spurs down to 10 men temporarily after Micky van de Ven went off injured, Villa struck. Deep into added time at the end of the first half, Johan Manzambi punished them, silencing the early optimism with a ruthless finish.
Conceding in that moment, in those circumstances, cut deep. “To concede when they’re down to 10-men with Van de Ven off injured is a big blow to them and makes the second half very difficult,” Murphy added.
The damage didn’t stop there. Villa came out after the break smelling blood. The pressure told, and Tottenham cracked again. Nicolas Jackson and Emi Buendia both found the net as the visitors took full control, exposing the fragility that sits just beneath the surface of this Spurs side.
Tottenham did at least show some fight late on. Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke pulled two goals back to give the scoreline a gloss it barely deserved. They pushed, they ran, they chased a miracle. But it was too late, and it didn’t change the feeling that this was another afternoon where Spurs couldn’t turn dominance into points.
“They didn’t really look like a team struggling for confidence,” Murphy insisted. “They won the ball back a lot high up and there was a lot to like, but ultimately if you can’t score when you’re on top in games in the Premier League you get punished.”
Tottenham are discovering that lesson every week.
De Zerbi under the microscope
The results are one problem. Roberto De Zerbi’s demeanour is becoming another.
Former Premier League midfielder Kevin Nolan did not hide his concern when speaking on BBC 5 Live before the game.
“I am really worried about Tottenham,” he said. “Every week Roberto de Zerbi has a different excuse. He doesn’t stay around much at clubs and falls out with a lot of his owners. He’s probably thinking: ‘Do I need this?’”
The Italian, so vibrant and bullish at the back end of last season, now cuts a very different figure. Nolan has noticed the shift.
“He is not inspiring me as he was at the back end of last season in his interviews when he was very jolly and very positive about what he had to do,” Nolan said. “Everything is downbeat and it doesn’t feel right when you’re watching him in a press conference. Laying the blame on players and staff…it doesn’t go anywhere other than the wrong way.”
That last line lingers. If De Zerbi keeps publicly pointing fingers, Nolan believes there is only one possible outcome to his tenure – and it will not be a pleasant one.
McKenna in the stands, questions in the air
Against that backdrop, even the sight of a manager in the stands can ignite speculation.
Former Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna, currently out of work, was spotted at Spurs’ home draw against Everton. Just a face in the crowd on one level, yet in the current climate, nothing around Tottenham feels incidental.
Former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson raised an eyebrow at the visit when speaking to Football Insider.
“We’re looking at £10m to bring somebody new in. Those are the sort of broad-brush numbers that we’re working to in the Premier League,” he said, outlining the scale of the financial hit involved in any managerial change.
Then came the detail that really caught his attention.
“It was interesting and a bit weird, to be honest, to see Kieran McKenna in the crowd at the home game against Everton,” Borson said. “He was in the crowd with his wife. It was a bit strange, really, that on a Saturday night, he would take his wife to watch Everton.
“I don’t know if there’s something behind that. It all looks a bit too obvious it’s all a bit strange. Maybe he was watching Everton.”
Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn’t.
What is certain is that Tottenham will spend the international break in the relegation zone, with an under-fire head coach, a restless fanbase and the sense that every camera shot, every guest in the directors’ box, every word at a press conference now carries extra weight.
The club threw hundreds of millions at avoiding another season like the last two. Instead, they are staring at the same battle again – and the question now is not just whether De Zerbi can turn it around, but how long he will be trusted to try.
