De Zerbi’s Nightmare: Tottenham’s Home Collapse and Upcoming Firing

Roberto De Zerbi faces the possibility of being fired after yet another setback for Tottenham, who lost 3-2 at home to Aston Villa on Matchday 5 of the Premier League. After spending 400 million on the transfer market, the Spurs’ start has been disastrous: the London team heads into the international break with just two points from five Premier League matches and sits third from last in the standings.

These numbers spell doom for the Lombard coach, for whom his team’s first two goals—after four scoreless matches—were not enough to turn things around. And now his job is truly on the line.

Goals by Manzambi, Jackson, and Buendia may have been too harsh a judgment on Tottenham, which had made a very strong start to the match and created several scoring chances in the first half that went unconverted. De Zerbi’s team was undone by Porro’s injury in the 20th minute and the VAR decision that disallowed Kudus’s 1-1 goal in the 60th minute. It wasn’t until the final minutes of the match that the Spurs came to life and scored two goals through Gallagher and Van Hecke, but it was too little, too late.

Now the long break could cost De Zerbi his job: Tottenham’s management might consider making an immediate change to give the new coach time to settle in during the two-week international break. Aston Villa, on the other hand, is celebrating; thanks to this win, they’ve secured their first league victory and moved away from the relegation zone.

Here’s what De Zerbi had to say after the match: “I think we could have scored many, many times in the first half, but we weren’t clinical enough. I take responsibility for that. We’ll work harder, but soccer is like life. Either you’re strong or you lose. We need to improve the quality of our play; to score a goal, we have to create 20 chances.”