Tottenham’s Carabao Cup win over Charlton on Wednesday night served as a pointed reminder of what a weekly diet of Championship football might have looked like had last season’s relegation fight gone the other way. Instead, Spurs are back in the Premier League, and Roberto De Zerbi’s side made the gulf in class count, brushing aside Nathan Jones’ Charlton 5-1 at home. The hosts were sluggish early on but took control once Mikey Moore broke the deadlock, with Dominic Solanke, Kevin Danso, Savio and Ben Davies adding further goals to complete a routine passage into the next round.
Moore was the standout story. After a quiet, substituted-off display against Brentford that did little to answer questions about his long-term role amid interest in a loan move, he was a different player here — sharp, direct and eager to take defenders on. He cut in from the right to open the scoring with a rasping finish, then set up Solanke’s first goal of the campaign. His underlying numbers backed up the eye test: 26 carries, seven of them progressive, plus eight dribble attempts and three completed. It leaves De Zerbi with a genuine dilemma over whether a loan would serve Moore better than fighting for minutes at Spurs, though a performance like this makes that call harder.
New arrival Savio needed only about twenty minutes after his Tuesday move to show why the club pursued him. Operating from the right with pace and directness, he scored a well-taken goal after cutting inside and drilling a shot into the near corner — and looked heavily involved in what was eventually credited as Ben Davies’ effort, initially celebrating it as his own. De Zerbi has previously pushed him to add more end product, pointing out that top wingers tend to reach double-figure goal tallies, and this cameo was an emphatic response. Fans who watched Heung-min Son terrorise defenders down the other flank for years could see echoes of that same hunger to run at goal in Savio’s approach, even allowing for the gap between Charlton’s resistance and what the Premier League will offer.
Elsewhere, Mateus Fernandes impressed on his first competitive start with an assist, and Jan Paul van Hecke rebounded from a shaky league debut by winning all four of his defensive duels. Solanke’s goal, meanwhile, was a welcome confidence lift after a tough 2025/26 season, with much more expected of him as De Zerbi builds a sharper attacking unit.
Ultimately it was a cup win rather than proof of anything definitive, but the contributions from Moore, Savio, Solanke and Fernandes gave De Zerbi real food for thought. With Son’s creative burden still needing to be replaced, Savio in particular looks like a player capable of injecting that same directness and menace back into Tottenham’s attack.
