Roberto De Zerbi faces his former club Brighton on Saturday as he searches for his first win as Tottenham Hotspur manager.
The north London side’s new era under the Italian began with a 1-0 defeat away to Sunderland last weekend, while Brighton secured their third consecutive victory with a 2-0 win at Burnley.
With six games remaining in the Premier League season, Spurs desperately need points to prevent their relegation rivals from pulling further away.
After both West Ham and Nottingham Forest picked up points last time out, Tottenham dropped into the bottom three for the first time this season and sit two points from safety ahead of the weekend’s action.
De Zerbi Must Start Xavi Simons vs Brighton
Winless in their last 13 Premier League games, Tottenham have severely lacked creativity all season, with both James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski long-term absentees.
In the defeat to Sunderland, De Zerbi opted for Lucas Bergvall at No. 10, and the Sweden international largely struggled to impress in only his second league appearance since returning from injury.
Xavi Simons, meanwhile, was left on the bench and was brought on with five minutes of normal time remaining, when Spurs were searching for a late equaliser.
It marked a fourth Premier League game in a row in which Simons, who joined from RB Leipzig in a £50m deal last summer, was absent from the starting XI.
So far, it has been a difficult campaign for the Dutchman after he struggled to gain the trust of both Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, but he has shown enough quality in recent weeks to deserve a start against Brighton.
The 22-year-old produced a man-of-the-match display against Atletico Madrid, scoring twice, and is one of the few creative options available as Spurs look to avoid a nightmare end to the campaign.
Tottenham Team News vs Brighton
At his Friday press conference, De Zerbi confirmed Tottenham will be without captain Cristian Romero for the rest of the campaign after the defender suffered a partial MCL tear.
Romero has joined a lengthy list of absentees that includes Kulusevski, Maddison, Wilson Odobert, Mohammed Kudus, Ben Davies and Guglielmo Vicario.
There has been some positive news regarding Rodrigo Bentancur, who is available again following a hamstring setback.