It didn’t take long for the summer optimism to fade away at Tottenham. After five matches this season, the north Londoners are without a win of any kind, and Saturday's defeat to Aston Villa was another low blow. Three defeats and two draws have marked a terrible start to the season for Spurs, who had to wait until the 86th minute of matchday five to score their first goal.
They enter the international break at the bottom of the Premier League table, with concerns starting to grow that this might be another miserable campaign for the club. Unsurprisingly, the pressure is already mounting on the shoulders of Roberto De Zerbi, with some social media speculation that Spurs might be forced to get rid soon.
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But according to the slim majority of over 2,400 Express Sport readers who voted in our recent poll, Spurs should pull the plug during the current international break.
Of those who cast a vote, 56 per cent said Tottenham would be wasting their time by sticking with De Zerbi beyond the international break. Instead, they think the smart thing to do would be to cut ties immediately and hire a new manager before the club calendar resumes next month.
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It wasn’t a unanimous vote, with 44 per cent of those who took part pushing back on the suggestion. De Zerbi was hired towards the back end of last season, with Spurs having to move heaven and earth to secure his services.
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It would be a hasty decision to sack the Italian, but after back-to-back 17th-placed finishes, Spurs can’t afford another season threatened by relegation. When quizzed on Tottenham’s latest defeat over the weekend, he remarked: “I am very disappointed, sad and frustrated for the performance.”
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“We can’t lose the game in this way, we can’t concede the second goal, we can’t lose balance just because we are losing. I spoke with our four attackers in minute 51, I asked them to use their head, all second half I was telling people to be calm. But the second goal was incredible.”
Straight after the international break, Spurs find themselves up against another of the Premier League’s crisis clubs, Manchester United. The Red Devils haven’t fared much better than Spurs, winning just one of their first five matches in the league.
Following that, they’ll come up against Coventry, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Leeds, Ipswich and Sunderland. Without European football of any kind, and having already been knocked out of the Carabao Cup, Tottenham will have to wait until January for a match that isn’t in the Premier League.