De Zerbi Under Fire as Spurs Sink Deeper into Trouble

Tottenham’s season is spiralling and Roberto De Zerbi is being told, bluntly, that it only ends one way if he keeps going like this.

A 3-2 defeat at home to Aston Villa on Saturday left Spurs still searching for their first Premier League win of the campaign. Losses to Villa, Brentford and Newcastle United, plus draws with Nottingham Forest and Everton, have locked them in the relegation zone heading into the international break.

For a club that has finished 17th in each of the last two seasons and spent over £300m to avoid another survival scrap, the picture is bleak. The pressure on De Zerbi will not ease for weeks.

Bright start, brutal punishment

The mood inside the stadium at kick-off was edgy but not toxic. Spurs actually started well.

For half an hour they pressed high, snapped into challenges and dictated the tempo. They worked Villa goalkeeper into a couple of sharp saves, nothing spectacular but enough to suggest there was a foothold in the game.

Then the familiar pattern returned.

As former Tottenham midfielder Danny Murphy put it on BBC duty, Spurs let Villa “grow into the game and gain confidence”. The intensity dipped, control slipped, and the visitors sensed it.

The turning point came deep into first-half stoppage time. With Spurs down to 10 men temporarily after Van de Ven went off injured, Villa struck. Johan Manzambi pounced in the fourth minute of added time at the end of the opening half, a gut punch just when Tottenham needed a reset, not a crisis.

The second half exposed all of Spurs’ fragility. Villa stretched their lead through Nicolas Jackson and Emi Buendia, punishing slack moments and a side that still cannot turn dominance into goals.

Tottenham did rally late. Conor Gallagher pulled one back, Jan Paul van Hecke added another to make it 3-2 and inject some tension into the closing stages. But it felt like a late flourish, not a fightback with real conviction.

Murphy’s verdict cut to the core: “They didn’t really look like a team struggling for confidence… 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 reality every week.

“Every week a different excuse”

The scrutiny is no longer just on the performances. It is firmly on De Zerbi himself.

Former Premier League midfielder Kevin Nolan, speaking on BBC 5 Live before the game, did not hide his concern.

“I am really worried about Tottenham,” he said. “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 pointed to a shift in De Zerbi’s demeanour. The upbeat, buoyant coach who ended last season talking enthusiastically about the project has been replaced by a far more downcast figure.

“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,” Nolan added. “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. De Zerbi has never been shy of strong words, but when results nosedive, public criticism of players and staff can quickly poison the atmosphere inside a club.

McKenna in the stands and a “strange” sight

When a manager is under pressure, every detail starts to look like a clue.

So when Kieran McKenna, out of work after leaving Ipswich Town, was spotted in the stands at Spurs’ home draw with Everton, eyebrows shot up. A talented young coach, linked regularly with Premier League jobs, suddenly sitting in the crowd with his wife at a Tottenham game? It did not go unnoticed.

Former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson admitted the whole thing felt off.

“We’re looking at £10m to bring somebody new in,” he told Football Insider, outlining the kind of figures involved in a managerial change at this level. “Obviously, if you get a manager that’s out of work… 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.

What matters for Tottenham is that such sightings are even being framed in the context of De Zerbi’s future. A winless start, a relegation-zone address and a manager publicly clashing with his own dressing room – that combination rarely ends quietly.

The international break buys Spurs time. It will not buy them patience.