Tottenham’s poor start took another worrying turn against Aston Villa, their fourth defeat in five league games. After back-to-back 17th-place finishes, the club had hoped a major summer rebuild would steer them clear of relegation trouble. Instead, the expensive new squad has not delivered the immediate lift supporters expected, and De Zerbi is under growing pressure to fix a side that looks fragile at the back and blunt in attack.
Spurs reportedly spent over £300 million in the summer, signing players including Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Jan Paul van Hecke and Omar Marmoush, but the results have not followed. Late goals from Conor Gallagher and van Hecke offered some consolation, though not enough to avoid defeat.
Joe Cole, speaking on TNT Sports, questioned the club’s recruitment. He said Tottenham had overpaid for every summer signing, could not be ruled out of a relegation battle, and looked weak defensively while failing to score. He singled out van Hecke, who scored but struggled against Nicolas Jackson. Cole felt the defender should be disappointed, arguing that a system which exposes centre-halves calls for ones who can win one-on-one duels, and that Jackson’s goal was not good enough. He concluded that the combination of fragility and goalless attacks points to a long season ahead.
Steven Gerrard agreed that Spurs have problems but was more positive about the midfield. He said Tonali, Fernandes and Bentancur make it a strong unit, and that Gallagher could even have started. The real weakness, in his view, is a flaky defence that concedes too many goals, particularly if two centre-backs cannot deal with a simple long ball. Spurs’ only competitive win this season came in the Carabao Cup, a 5-1 victory over Charlton Athletic in round two, before they went out to Liverpool.
Gerrard also pointed to a lack of goals, saying the squad has good, exciting forwards but no clear poacher. He asked who would score 20, and warned that without that and with leaky defending, Spurs fans have reason to be concerned. De Zerbi now faces a major task to turn things around before the slump gets worse.
