Tottenham's Struggles Continue Under De Zerbi After Defeat to Aston Villa
Roberto De Zerbi’s Tottenham reign is heading “nowhere other than the wrong way” after another bruising afternoon ended in a 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa and left Spurs stuck in the relegation zone heading into the international break.
The numbers are stark. No wins from five Premier League games. Defeats to Aston Villa, Brentford and Newcastle United. Draws with Nottingham Forest and Everton. A club that has spent over £300m across two summers to drag itself away from the bottom three now finds itself rooted in it again, for at least the next few weeks.
This is not a one-off slump. Tottenham have finished 17th in each of the last two seasons. The reset was supposed to be done by now. Instead, the same anxieties are back, only louder.
Bright start, brutal punch
For half an hour at Villa Park, you could almost believe the reset was working.
Tottenham started with purpose. They pressed high, snapped into challenges, and controlled the tempo. Former Spurs midfielder Danny Murphy, watching for the BBC, saw a side that did not resemble a team drowning in self-doubt.
“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,” he said.
The pressure, though, never turned into a lead. And that has become the recurring nightmare.
As the half wore on, Aston Villa grew. Spurs’ grip loosened. When Micky van de Ven went off injured, the mood shifted again. Tottenham were down to 10 men in the closing stages of the first period, hanging on for the whistle.
They didn’t get it.
Deep into first-half stoppage time, Johan Manzambi struck, punishing Spurs right at the moment when concentration and organisation mattered most. The blow landed hard. Murphy called it “a big blow” that made the second half “very difficult” – and Tottenham played like a side that knew it.
Villa pull away, Spurs too late
The pattern after the break felt grimly familiar. Spurs chased, Villa picked them off.
Nicolas Jackson doubled the lead, Emi Buendia added a third, and suddenly the match looked like it might turn into a humiliation rather than a contest. Tottenham did rally. Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke dragged the scoreline back to 3-2 with late goals, but the damage was already done.
Murphy’s verdict cut to the core of the problem.
“They didn’t really look like a team struggling for confidence, they won the ball back a lot high up and there was a lot to like,” he said. “But ultimately if you can’t score when you’re on top in games in the Premier League you get punished.”
Spurs are living that lesson every week.
De Zerbi under fire – and under the microscope
The defeats are one thing. The mood around De Zerbi is another.
Former Premier League midfielder Kevin Nolan believes the Italian is steering himself towards trouble, not just through results but through his words.
“I am really worried about Tottenham,” Nolan said on BBC 5 Live before the game. “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?’”
Nolan has noticed a shift in the manager’s demeanour compared to the end of last season.
“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.
“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 will sting at a club where the dressing room has already been through multiple managerial cycles and public critiques.
McKenna in the stands and the £10m question
All of this plays out against a backdrop that Tottenham can’t easily ignore: speculation over potential successors.
Former Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna, currently out of work, was spotted in the stands at Spurs’ home game against Everton. On its own, that might be nothing. In the current climate, it became something.
Former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, speaking to Football Insider, framed the situation in cold financial terms.
“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.
Then came the detail that set tongues wagging.
“It was interesting and a bit weird, to be honest, to see Kieran McKenna in the crowd at the home game against Everton.
“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. Right now, every camera shot, every sighting, every comment about De Zerbi’s mood is being fed into the same conversation.
Tottenham head into the international break in the bottom three, winless, with a manager whose tone has turned dark and a fanbase scanning the stands for the next man in. How long can a club that has already spent so heavily on survival afford to wait for a turnaround that never quite arrives?
