"Now it is difficult to hear my words, but if you watch the players, if you analyse the level of the players, I think we can win five games in a row," Tottenham's new man at the helm confidently asserted after Georginio Rutter's gut punch.
Spurs had expended so much against Brighton & Hove Albion, and were deserving of three points. Xavi Simons' stunning strike was certainly worthy of a match-winning moment.
But Kevin Danso dallied and Rutter struck. A huge opportunity missed. Even when our first Premier League victory of 2026 arrived the following week, we lost the aformentioned Xavi to an ACL tear in the process. Seemingly everything was conspiring against this football club, and us supporters, for solace, couldn't help but feel sorry for ourselves.
"The most important challenge now is to silence the voice inside of us, inside of the players, inside of the staff and inside of the fans. This voice can produce negative thoughts," Roberto De Zerbi said on Friday, two days before a decisive trip to Villa Park.
He labelled the 'woe me, woe us' talk as "rubbish", insisting that this once broken squad is capable of rocking up at the home of the Premier League's fifth-placed team and winning. Encouragement arrived via Brentford's battering of West Ham United on Saturday afternoon.
Not only did Spurs meet the challenge head on, but they produced a performance so beaming with pride that the misery of the past few months and the frightening situation we remain in was briefly forgotten.
Outstanding Tottenham climb out of purgatory with De Zerbi's brilliance felt
Player empowerment has been a priority for De Zerbi at the start of his reign. Without so many potential key cogs, he's had no choice but to eke every drop of sweat out of the players he has available.
In the absence of a playmaker, Spurs needed to summon the spirit of Bilbao. On Sunday night, they churned out their best performance of the season, combining courage with vigour, and belief with savvy. You could argue that our two finest have been overseen by De Zerbi, certainly since the win away at Manchester City back in August, anyway.
The midfielders that looked so utterly toothless under Thomas Frank combined with the relentless Conor Gallagher to overwhelm and suffocate Villa. Spurs pinched like Hannibal's Carthaginians at Cannae, forcing a Villa team that relies upon slick central combinations into lengthy periods of consternation. We turned the ball over at will.
Gallagher was just incredible, right up until the very end. Palhinha: brilliant. Bentancur: is it 2022 again? There were so many standout defensive sequences that I adored and cheered more than the two goals.
I've mentioned a couple, but from back to front, Tottenham were outstanding. AntonÃn Kinsky's performing as if the Metropolitano never happened, Randal Kolo Muani's being embraced by those who've slandered him for much of his loan, and Mathys Tel was on hand to produce a moment of quality in the final third. Every single one of them can be proud of their evening's work.
This was not the nervy slog of a performance you might've expected, but a cool and composed exhibition from an expertly drilled outfit chasing lucrative honours. De Zerbi has got universal buy-in from this group, and we can only feel encouraged heading into the final three games.
The job is not done. There are 270 minutes of football left in this torrid season, but perform as we did on Sunday night, as Spurs may well meet De Zerbi's lofty goal of going five for five to survive.
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