Tottenham Hotspur
Today's Talking Points
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1Roberto De Zerbi is Tottenham's third head coach in barely a year, brought in last season specifically to stop them going down — which he did, on the final day, beating Everton 2-0 with the club needing exactly that result to survive.
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2This season is his first full campaign in charge, and he's led a genuinely major summer spending spree alongside sporting director Johan Lange and the club's hierarchy — the kind of outlay that raises the stakes on every poor result rather than lowering the pressure.
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3The start hasn't matched the ambition: back-to-back defeats to open the season, including a chastening 0-2 loss at home to Newcastle where two of Newcastle's own summer signings did the damage, before Forest held them to a goalless draw that De Zerbi's side were relieved to take as their first point.
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4De Zerbi has already had to publicly defend the summer spending — not the conversation a club wants to be having in September after paying for a rescue job and a rebuild in the same calendar year.
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5Spurs avoided relegation by a matter of days last spring, which means every slow start this season reads differently to their fans than it would at a club with more cushion — there's real history behind the anxiety, not just habit.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Spurs fans watched De Zerbi save them from relegation in May and are now watching him defend a transfer budget in September — welcome to Tottenham.
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Avoid saying
"Spurs always find a way to disappoint" — sounds like received wisdom but ignores the actual situation: a manager who just saved them, in his first full season, defending his own signings. Say the cliché and you'll sound like you stopped watching after last May.
