The mood around Tottenham Hotspur has been transformed over the last two weeks. At one stage on April 25, when Spurs were drawing with Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United were beating Everton, it looked like they could finish the day four points off safety. Throw in a season-ending injury to Xavi Simons and, understandably, there were a lot of sombre-looking faces in the away end at Molineux, grappling with the prospect of spending next year in the Championship.
Joao Palhinha’s scrappy 82nd-minute strike earned Spurs their first win in the Premier League since December and they followed it up with an impressive 2-1 victory over Aston Villa. West Ham’s 3-0 defeat at Brentford allowed Spurs to jump out of the relegation zone and now with three games of this miserable season remaining, their destiny is back in their own hands.
Tottenham’s away points tally (26) is only bettered by league leaders Arsenal (35) and second-placed Manchester City (32), but the fact their one remaining away game is at Chelsea, where they have only won once in the last 36 years, would suggest they probably shouldn’t bank on bumping their away points total to 29.
Spurs host Leeds United on Monday evening, before welcoming Everton on the final day of the campaign. However there is one complication: They have only won two home league games all season.
The most recent came way back on December 6, when Richarlison and Xavi Simons scored in a comfortable victory over Brentford. It was also the last time they kept a Premier League clean sheet in front of their own supporters.
Spurs now have the worst home record in the division this season, thanks to Burnley’s point against Aston Villa on Sunday. They have lost 10 times, conceded 30 goals and only accumulated 11 points.
To ensure their Premier League survival, that surely has to change.
Tottenham’s record was also underwhelming last season under Ange Postecoglou — even if not quite so disastrous.
They won 21 points from 19 games, which was level with Wolves and marginally better than West Ham (20). The three worst-performing sides at home were all relegated.
Since the start of the 2024-25 season, Spurs have the worst home record out of the ever-present top-flight sides. They have won fewer games than Wolves and conceded the same amount of goals.
Spurs have a measly average of 0.89 points per Premier League home game in that time. No wonder the fanbase, who pay some of the most expensive ticket prices in the division, have so often lost patience with the team and ownership over the last 12 months.
“There is a lot of literature and data out there on home advantage but certain clubs struggle with the expectations of the fans versus the reality of where the team is,” Dan Abrahams, a sport psychologist who has worked with teams and individual athletes around the world, tells The Athletic.
“Players think, ‘If I make one mistake, the crowd are going to get on my back’. It is anxiety-inducing, which can have an impact on awareness, anticipation, decision-making, physical functioning and technical co-ordination. It makes good players look poor. There have been examples this season of players experiencing extreme performance anxiety probably for the first time in their careers.”
It is an issue they need to address even if head coach Roberto De Zerbi does not sound too concerned.
“It’s not my problem now,” the Italian said when asked about the club’s struggles at home ahead of Monday’s fixture against Leeds. “Now, I don’t want to lose energy. We have to be good, smart, to keep this mentality, to keep this momentum, with the same qualities we showed in this last period. Then we go to analyse why we have not won too many games at home, what were the problems at home.
“But I think it was a coincidence, because against Atletico Madrid they won, against Borussia Dortmund in January they won in the Champions League. If you ask me, against Brighton, we won. We won, but we didn’t take three points. We took one point, but in my head, we won. As a performance, if we analyse the game against Brighton, it’s like a win. I think it’s a mistake if we keep the focus on this part.”
The atmosphere at the stadium was superb during Postecoglou’s first year in charge but it unravelled last season when progress in the top flight was sacrificed for Europa League success. Frank never had a chance of uniting the crowd following lethargic home defeats to Chelsea, Fulham and Arsenal.
Before March’s humbling loss to Nottingham Forest, which turned out to be Igor Tudor’s last game in charge, a group of fans wrote an open letter to the squad on social media which included the lines “we are right behind you and we believe in you”. The message was shared by multiple players including vice-captain Micky Van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario and Kevin Danso. A group of supporters called Show Up, Sing Up, Stay Up organised for thousands of fans to greet the team bus. ahead of the game, with some standing on bus stops and hanging from lamp posts as the players arrived in N17. Blue flares were lit, flags and banners were handed out in the stands. Spurs started brightly against Forest but collapsed when Igor Jesus scored just before half-time.
So much pressure and weight had been put on that fixture that it risked becoming “emotionally exhausting,” according to Tom Bates, a performance psychologist with experience working at several Premier League clubs and the Team GB Olympic squad. “I’m pretty sure that (the fans) were all doing that with the best of intentions,” Bates tells The Athletic. “They’re trying to create an injection of emotion. Of power, positivity, optimism, enthusiasm, all of that good stuff, but it is counter-intuitive.
“The key is not placing so much emphasis on one game, moment, player or situation. Instead, think, ‘From now until the end of the season, collectively, our aim is to achieve what?’ The pressure that gets created by turning every game into a cup final is the opposite. It creates emotional fatigue.”
Show Up, Sing Up, Stay Up had loose plans to meet the team bus for the remainder of the season but De Zerbi wanted the players to make their own travel arrangements for the 2-2 draw with his former side Brighton & Hove Albion. De Zerbi likes his squad to arrive at the stadium four hours before kick-off. They have a meeting which lasts up to 45 minutes and then have a meal together.
“I don’t want to put pressure on the players with my plan but what the fans want to do, is good for us, it’s something more,” De Zerbi said in his press conference before Brighton. “I didn’t know the fans wanted to make again this (gesture). I am very sensitive with the fans and what they want to do, I consider the fans in every team I’ve been as a player, like a player. But I didn’t know but for the next time, if the people ask me to change the plan, no problem.”
Spurs have recorded victories over Man City, Everton, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace on the road and picked up draws against Newcastle United and Liverpool. They have won a higher proportion of their points away from home (70 per cent) than any other team in any season in Premier League history. They managed to beat Wolves at Molineux despite Dominic Solanke and Xavi suffering injuries. The key is to transport those performances to north London. Even celebrating tackles can make a small difference.
“Footballers can be shy about (celebrating) but desperate times call for desperate measures,” Abrahams says. “Those mini celebrations after winning a duel, the psychology backs it up, they are letting their bodies and actions lead their mindset. De Zerbi has to draw on that and say, ‘Our job is to do that, raise the temperature in the stadium in the first five to 10 minutes to set the tone and stay there’. He will be striving to create a narrative of ‘we did that (against Aston Villa) and I want exactly the same at home’.”
De Zerbi has been adept at managing the noise around Spurs, particularly when compared to Frank and Tudor, who were both guilty of fanning the flames at times. After Rutter’s last-minute equaliser for Brighton, De Zerbi said the squad needed “to come to training on Monday with a smile or go home”.
Reflecting on Xavi’s anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, the Italian said “the challenge now is to silence the voice inside of us” which “produces negative thoughts”.
“I heard, ‘It’s impossible, we are crying, everyone is crying, we are relegated’ — no, not yet,” he added. He has uplifted the squad and the fanbase.
Abrahams is full of praise for De Zerbi’s messaging. “The sensibility of most head coaches is to ignore the outside world and focus on the team’s processes and your own individual responsibilities,” he says. “You have to take control of the language, the temperature, the culture and environment. That’s exactly what De Zerbi is doing and he has got a big enough persona to do that.”
De Zerbi took a gamble joining Spurs with only seven games remaining. He boldly predicted Spurs could win five games in a row after that draw with Brighton and they have ticked off the first two. If he manages to help Spurs win at home for the first time in 156 days, supporters can start optimistically thinking about the future again.