Although Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi heads into the September international break under fire with more Spurs fans turning against their new coach after a brutal 3-2 loss to Aston Villa in which they went down 3-0, the reality is that Spurs were the better team and simply outperformed by xG due to a combination of wonder goals and wonder saves against them. The other part of that equation is that a lot of players in the attack have been woefully underperforming.
Omar Marmoush has been a disaster in recent weeks, while Mathys Tel and Dominic Solanke have been so poor that their futures this January transfer window will be called into question if these performances do not dramatically turn around. Mohammed Kudus has been poor and struggling for fitness, too, James Maddison isn't yet healthy, and while new signing Savio is the one saving grace creatively, his utter lack of a goal threat is still part of the problem here.
Tottenham have only scored three goals against Premier League caliber teams in six appearances this season, and it took them until Matchday 5 against Aston Villa to score once in actual league play. And although they technically scored two goals against the Lions, the fact that these strikes came with Spurs down 3-0 means that the goals meant very little in the end to anyone.
Roberto De Zerbi is at least keeping Tottenham in control
But while Tottenham Hotspur have been frustratingly poor in front of goal with Omar Marmoush and Dominic Solanke cutting frustrated figures despite getting copious chances to score, Roberto De Zerbi should actually be praised - not for how anemic Spurs are as an attack but for changing the conversation from a worse negative to a different one.
Because even though Spurs are struggling badly to score goals in the 2026/27 Premier League season, they were already struggling to score last season. Richarlison leading the Lilywhites in Premier League goals with 11 last season is hardly a ringing endorsement of their attack.
Now, Spurs are having trouble scoring, but they are at least dominating possession, creating xG, and getting into better positions. Of course, Tottenham could be doing a better job of creating actual, clear cut chances, and players like Solanke and Mathys Tel need to be doing a lot better off the ball.
But De Zerbi has changed the discussion from Spurs playing negative football and being totally dominated on the ball to at least having the ball, creating forward play, but just having the problem of missing that final bit of quality to actually put the ball in the end - and that's a less severe problem to have as a team.
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