After a flirtation with relegation last season, Tottenham are hoping for much better in 2026-27. Here are five key issues that could shape their campaign.
Following back-to-back 17th-place finishes, there is renewed optimism Tottenham can have a successful season.
Roberto De Zerbi guided Spurs to safety at the end of last season with barely any time to work with an underperforming and injury-ravaged squad, so now, after a full pre-season, fans have reason to believe 2026-27 could be different.
So, can Spurs make a return to the top half of the Premier League? Is a challenge for Europe – or even better – on the cards? Here are five key questions ahead of the new campaign.
How Extreme Will De Zerbi Go With His Tactics?
De Zerbi has spoken openly about the fact he didn’t have enough time in the seven-game run in which he steered Spurs clear of relegation at the end of last season to implement his tactics properly. Now, after a full summer in charge and a lot of money spent on the positions through which Spurs will play out from the back, there is an expectation we might see De Zerbi-ball in all its glory this season.
However, the jump for many of Spurs’ players will be a big one, and even after a full pre-season, there may still be some need for a bit of long-ball pragmatism that was a big part of their arsenal in their survival fight.
Marcos Senesi, who topped all Premier League outfielders last season both for long balls attempted (477) and successfully completed (182), has come in at centre-back, and Pedro Porro, who ranked fourth (294) and sixth (134) in those two metrics, will play at right-back, so Spurs have plenty of skill in that department.
De Zerbi’s Brighton took a season to become quite as slow and intricate with their build-up play as he wanted, but in his second year there, his side were among the most committed to a short-passing game in the whole top flight.
We will likely see a very different Tottenham to last season, but this year may be another one of steady adjustment to De Zerbi’s methods.
Where Will the Goals Come From?
In each of the three previous seasons, Tottenham sold their top scorer from the campaign before (Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson). Richarlison, their top scorer from a bitterly disappointing 2025-26, might remain a Spurs player – for now, at least – but serious questions remain over where Tottenham’s goals will come from this term.
A higher proportion of Spurs’ expected goals (36.9%) and goals (39.6%) came from set-pieces than any other team in the Premier League last season, with defensive players in João Palhinha (five goals), Cristian Romero (four) and Micky van de Ven (four) among their top scorers. They may well still be as effective from dead balls this term – though Palhinha and Romero are no longer at the club – but they simply cannot go into the season relying on them quite as much.
Meanwhile, not only are they yet to strengthen in attacking areas with just four days to go until the start of the season, but they are heading into Saturday’s opener against Brentford with attacking players Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons and Wilson Odobert all injured.
They might all be back soon, but nobody should be making any assumptions about their returns. Former manager Ange Postecoglou called the injury Kulusevski sustained in May 2025 “a knock” at the time, and the Swede has only this month returned to training on grass. Solanke, meanwhile, has been plagued by injuries ever since he joined. The other three in that list have all suffered long-term injuries.
Richarlison may still be at the club but he can’t be relied on to stay fit either, and other than him, they only have Mikey Moore and Mathys Tel as fit, senior members of their first-team attack, and they are hardly “senior” at 19 and 21 years old. As things stand, scoring goals could be a real problem.
Can Spurs Avoid Another Injury Crisis?
Speaking of injuries, they have been a major issue for Tottenham for the last two years, and they can’t afford another injury-hit campaign.
A lack of European football for only the second time in the last 17 seasons will help. Spurs grew accustomed to competing in Europe throughout the 2010s, but they have not been able to deal with the demands of continental competition in the last couple of years. After winning the Europa League alongside a 17th-place finish in 2024-25, they then very nearly got relegated while playing in the Champions League last season. Both times, they suffered relentless and debilitating injury crises.
In the first of those campaigns, Postecoglou’s demanding style of play was thought to have contributed as Spurs’ players picked up a disproportionate number of muscle injuries. Then, last term, their squad fell apart with a series of serious knee injuries.
It wasn’t only bad luck, though. They have built a squad that is stacked with talent but clearly full of players who are too susceptible to injuries. They simply had to make the squad more resilient this summer.
With the signings of Jan Paul van Hecke, Senesi, Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes, they appear to have done just that. From a possible 38 Premier League games last season, those four respectively made 36, 37, 35 and 36 appearances.
The hope is, therefore, that Spurs now have the strength – both in terms of depth and in avoiding injuries – to deal with the demands of another Premier League season, particularly one without European fixtures thrown in.
In 2023-24, the only other of the past 17 seasons in which they didn’t compete in Europe, Spurs finished fifth, two points off the Champions League places. There is an outside hope they can do something similar without any European demands this season.
What Will the Defence Look Like… and How Well Will it Function?
Spurs have completely revamped their defence this summer.
Romero and Djed Spence have left, and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is on his way out the exit door, too.
Senesi, Van Hecke and Andy Robertson have come in, while Antonín Kinsky is now the number one. All four could be part of Tottenham’s back five for the coming campaign, or, at the very least, could play significant roles. Van de Ven, Destiny Udogie and Porro will also hope to be heavily involved, while Kevin Danso will feel he has a part to play.
Precisely who will make up the first-choice defence isn’t yet certain, but it will look very different to last season, when Spurs ended the campaign with their worst goal difference (-9) since 2002-03.
This time around, there’s undoubtedly a lot of quality in Spurs’ defensive ranks, but throwing good players together doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll function well.
Spurs have struggled to balance attacking football with defensive solidity in recent years. Their pretty dreadful total of 57 goals conceded last season was actually their best in the last four seasons; the problem was they only scored 48 goals.
The aim this season must be to keep the ball out of the net like a top-half team, while still carrying an attacking threat. Having defenders who can progress the ball up the pitch like Van Hecke and Senesi, who topped the Premier League last season for line-breaking passes with 459 and 420, respectively, should help with the latter part of that. But can they strike a better balance between defence and attack than they have in recent years?
De Zerbi’s Brighton don’t exactly provide that much hope. They were never solid at the back, shipping 53 goals in finishing sixth in 2022-23, and then 62 goals a season later when they came 11th.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be expecting Spurs to be defensively resilient next season.
Will the Switch Away From Long-Term Thinking Pay Off?
Spurs haven’t quite performed a complete U-turn from their focus on recruiting young players, but they have veered sharply away from it this summer at the behest of their powerful manager.
Reports suggested their summer search for a director of football stalled because of De Zerbi’s insistence that he be heavily involved in transfer decisions, and it appears he has got his way with players brought in at great cost who are ready to play at the top level.
The sales of youngsters like Luka Vuskovic to Brighton and Will Lankshear to Middlesbrough have dismayed sections of the fanbase who want the club to be better at planning for the future. Talk of Lucas Bergvall wanting a route out of the club has further fuelled those feelings.
But while Vuskovic, Lankshear and Bergvall may turn out to be great players, none of them were likely to be world-beaters this season, and that is what matters to De Zerbi right now. The £185 million spent on a new midfield pairing in Fernandes and Tonali really needs to pay off.
So, will Spurs fans be treated to enough of an immediate improvement that any sacrifice of future glories becomes acceptable, or will the club be hurt by this summer’s expensive pivot?
Past attempts by Spurs to find a win-now solution – namely appointing José Mourinho and then Antonio Conte as manager – fell flat on their face. Will spending big on players to satisfy De Zerbi work in their favour, or will it damage their long-term ambitions?
Enjoy this? Add Opta Analyst as a preferred source by clicking here.
