It was more of the same for Tottenham Hotspur under their third manager in a dire 2025/26 season, with the opening 15 minutes at the Stadium of Light proving to be no more than a false dawn for the Lilywhites.
Roberto De Zerbi made his eagerly anticipated managerial bow for the club on Sunday, with intrigue surrounding his debut piquing as his first Spurs XI was disclosed.
Much of the team picked itself due to injuries, but De Zerbi also made a couple of calls that looked questionable on paper, and ultimately proved to be erroneous.
His exclusions of Xavi Simons and Mathys Tel from his team were a surprise, given what he'd said in the build-up to his first game, and Sunday's outing should've shown that these two need to be at the forefront of our survival bid.
Tel and Simons must play leading roles for Tottenham amid relegation scrap
Neither player was particularly impactful when they entered proceedings at the Stadium of Light, but that's besides the point.
Tel entered the fray right after Nordi Mukiele's opener, with the game's already stodgy rhythm disrupted further by the collision caused by a Brian Brobbey push on Cristian Romero. Tottenham's captain, who clattered into the onrushing AntonÃn Kinsky, will miss the remainder of the season with a partial tear of his MCL.
De Zerbi said Simons would've come on earlier then he eventually did (84th minute for the woeful Conor Gallagher), but Romero's enforced substitution altered his plans.
The rationale behind De Zerbi's selected front four seemed to be predicated on playing over Sunderland's press and releasing the speedy Randal Kolo Muani in behind. However, Spurs, after a couple of early successful sequences, struggled to play through or over the Black Cats. The technical limitations of Richarlison, in particular, thwarted our ability to get up the pitch, while Dominic Solanke simply didn't offer enough as a focal point.
Tel is raw and imperfect, but I would've much preferred him to have been on the receiving end of the two promising openings Richarlison squandered in both halves. Still, I could at least understand why De Zerbi opted for Richy.
The more confusing decision was the deployment of Lucas Bergvall as the most advanced midfielder. Thomas Frank tried this, and we never saw the best of the young Swede. Bergvall is far more effective when he's able to carry the ball from deep, with his courage and bravery in possession under-utilised by De Zerbi's predecessors.
He doesn't look comfortable receiving ahead of the ball, and merely using him to run around and win second balls seems to be a waste of his talents. While De Zerbi is offering a lite version of his complex principles at this early juncture, it seems bizarre for Tottenham's most creative player not to be on the pitch as much as possible.
Without Simons, Spurs seldom seem like prising any defence open. The Dutchman hasn't yet settled into Premier League life, but he's caught fire in Europe and was at the forefront of our two most impressive performances of 2026 (vs. Manchester City and Atlético Madrid).