Tottenham Hotspur fans will not be filled with optimism after finding out which referee will take charge of their clash against Sunderland on Sunday.
The Roberto De Zerbi era at Spurs gets underway with a trip to the Stadium of Light this weekend.
It represents a difficult start to life in North London for De Zerbi, who is taking over a side that has yet to win a single league game this calendar year.
Tottenham could find themselves in the bottom three by the time they take to the field with West Ham hosting bottom-of-the-table Wolves on Friday.
Rob Jones will referee Tottenham’s clash against Sunderland
The Premier League have now announced that Rob Jones will officiate Sunday’s clash at the Stadium of Light, with Neil Davies and Nick Greenhalgh as his assistants.
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Tom Bramall will be the fourth official, while the VAR and Assistant VAR will be James Bell and Nick Hopton, respectively.
As per Transfermarkt, Jones has officiated 13 matches involving Spurs, out of which the Lilywhites have won just four matches and lost six, which does not make for encouraging reading. That makes for a win rate of just 30.7% ahead of what is a must-win game for the Lilywhites.
Jones has booked Tottenham players on 32 occasions during those 13 matches, but, on the plus side, he has never sent off a Spurs player.
What will De Zerbi’s game plan be at Sunderland?
De Zerbi has made it clear that he favours a possession-based, attacking style of football, but implementing that at a Tottenham side lacking in confidence may not be easy.
Pundits have suggested that the new Spurs boss may opt for a pragmatic approach against Sunderland, rather than asking his side to take risks.
Tottenham supporters will be eagerly waiting to see what starting line-up the Italian goes with and whether the Lilywhites take the game to the Black Cats.