Tottenham’s miserable start to the season showed no signs of improving Saturday evening, as Everton frustrated them to a 0-0 stalemate in north London.
Spurs remain winless through the opening weeks, and the latest scoreless outing means their Premier League goal drought has now run past six hours of play.
This unwelcome streak also makes it the first time in the club’s history that Tottenham have gone without scoring in each of their first four league games of a season.
Dominic Solanke had little impact leading the line before he was swapped out for Mathys Tel just after the 60-minute mark. That change didn’t give Roberto De Zerbi the spark he wanted either, with Spurs managing just two shots on target the entire game.
Tension boiled over right after the final whistle, when De Zerbi marched onto the pitch and went directly to Tel. The manager appeared clearly worked up as he had a heated back-and-forth with the young forward, who stood listening with his hands on his hips.
Speaking to reporters afterward, De Zerbi downplayed the incident, saying it was purely tactical instruction. He described talking Tel through his positioning as a striker, explaining that in a lineup featuring Maddison, Kudus and Savinho, Tel needs to keep his body angled toward goal to stay ready for service — whether that’s a cross from Robertson or otherwise. De Zerbi noted that Tel came through as a striker before shifting to a wide role, and made clear he holds no grudge against him personally, calling him someone he rates highly both as a player and a person.
Jamie Redknapp, though, wasn’t nearly as understanding. Breaking down the match for Sky Sports, the former Spurs midfielder called the performance “diabolical.”
Redknapp said that after Tottenham’s roughly £300 million outlay, he expected goals wouldn’t be an issue, even if results took time to come together. Given the quality in midfield, he argued, the team should clearly have more firepower. He called it simply unacceptable to go six hours without a Premier League goal, no matter how you look at it. He acknowledged the defense — particularly the center-backs — looked improved, but said that still wasn’t enough. He questioned how a team with this much talent could go that long without finding the net, concluding that Tottenham haven’t gotten their team balance right and have too many issues to sort through just to manufacture a single goal.
The result leaves De Zerbi under mounting pressure to solve Tottenham’s scoring problems, with the club’s massive summer spending still to show up on the scoreboard.
