The Tottenham Hotspur head coach is not having a rest after the exploits at Aston Villa as he takes in another Premier League game on Monday
If anyone thought Roberto De Zerbi would be taking it easy on Bank Holiday Monday in the aftermath of Tottenham's big win at Aston Villa then they would be sorely mistaken.
Instead the 46-year-old could be seen on Monday afternoon up in the director's box at Chelsea, taking in the Blues' game against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. Spurs would have arrived back late on Sunday night after the 2-1 victory at Villa, which dragged them out of the bottom three at the expense of West Ham thanks to goals from Conor Gallagher and Richarlison.
There was to be no rest for De Zerbi though as the Italian was back at a Premier League game with a trip to Stamford Bridge, sat alongside one member of his Spurs staff Marcello Quinto, the club's senior professional development phase coach.
Quinto worked with De Zerbi at Brighton and Marseille as a technical coach. The 40-year-old retired in 2020 and coached within Fiorentina's academy after hanging up his boots and had played under the new Spurs boss while at Foggia as a defensive midfielder.
On the other side of De Zerbi appeared to be Frank Trimboli, the Italian-speaking head of football at CAA Base, the agency that has a major presence at Spurs.
The Tottenham head coach could also be seen up in the director's box at Chelsea speaking to the Blues' sporting director Paul Winstanley and director of global recruitment Sam Jewell. Winstanley has been linked with a move to Spurs in recent months, although such talk was shut down quickly by Chelsea, while De Zerbi will know Jewell well from his years as head of recruitment at Brighton.
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De Zerbi's presence at Stamford Bridge is obvious enough. Tottenham's next away game in the Premier League is at Chelsea on May 19, just three days after the Blues play in the FA Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley.
He might also be taking a look at Spurs' relegation rivals Nottingham Forest, who made eight changes to their team in between their Europa League semi-final legs against Villa but still took the lead on Monday afternoon through Taiwo Awoniyi's header just 90 seconds in to the game and then Igor Jesus scored from the spot 14 minutes in to double the visitors' lead.
Up next for Spurs is a home game against Leeds United next Monday and De Zerbi has urged focus despite the north London club's first back-to-back wins in the Premier League since the opening games of the season.
"The crucial thing now is to keep in our heads what was the situation before the Wolverhampton game," he said. "This is the most important memory to keep in our heads because in football it's very easy to change. If you lose you are stupid, if you win you are a champion. No, we have to find the balance. We have to work this week because Leeds is another very tough game and to remember in ourselves what we have done in the past, in the last month."