De Zerbi’s Terrible Start

Roberto De Zerbi starts Sunday with Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League relegation places, 12 days after the club hired him on a long-term deal. (premierleague.com) The Premier League’s table listed Spurs 18th on 30 points after 31 matches before most of Matchweek 32, one point behind 17th-place West Ham United. Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers were below them. (premierleague.com) Tottenham announced De Zerbi’s appointment on March 31 and said the former Brighton and Hove Albion and Marseille coach had signed a long-term contract. Sporting director Johan Lange said De Zerbi had been the club’s “number one target for the summer.” (tottenhamhotspur.com) He became Spurs’ third head coach of the season after Igor Tudor left without a Premier League win in a 44-day spell, according to Sky Sports. De Zerbi’s first league match was set to be away at Sunderland on April 12. (skysports.com) The immediate problem is simple: the bottom three clubs go down to the Championship at the end of the season. The Premier League said Tottenham had seven matches left when De Zerbi arrived. (premierleague.com) Spurs dropped into the bottom three after West Ham beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-0 on April 10. The league said Tottenham could move back above West Ham with a result at Sunderland on Sunday afternoon. (premierleague.com) The run that De Zerbi inherited was poor even before he took training. In the club-by-club form guide published by the Premier League, Tottenham’s previous five results were one win, one draw and three defeats, including a 3-0 home loss to Nottingham Forest in Tudor’s final game. (premierleague.com) De Zerbi said Tottenham’s “short-term priority is to climb the Premier League table” and told the club he was joining because he believed in its long-term ambition. He also said after taking over that the team had to go “game by game” with seven fixtures remaining. (tottenhamhotspur.com; tottenhamhotspur.com) The backdrop is unusual for a club of Tottenham’s size. Sky Sports said Spurs are trying to avoid a first top-flight relegation since 1977, while the Premier League’s remaining-fixtures page shows four of their last seven matches come against Sunderland, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Everton. (skysports.com; premierleague.com) So the online verdict on De Zerbi’s “start” is really a verdict on the table he inherited. By kickoff at Sunderland on April 12, the new manager had not yet coached a Premier League match for Tottenham, but he was already trying to lift a team sitting 18th. (premierleague.com; tottenhamhotspur.com)