As much as poor runs of form are especially damaging to a team, sometimes a positive run of form can lead to misleading expectations. Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi had to deal with egregious and unfair criticisms of his coaching when Spurs were winless to start the 2026/27 Premier League season, and a lot of the pundits who were gassing him and Spurs up as a Champions League contender were then having a field day with putting the Italian coach on the hot seat.
But then when his improved football and tactics were finally leading to better results and a three game winning streak after a positive performance in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford vs. Manchester United following the October international break, the pendulum swung unfairly in the other direction.
Tottenham are not a top five team
Tottenham turned in a disappointing performance at Elland Road in a 1-0 loss to Leeds United that felt like a step backwards. There were several factors contributing to the result such as injuries to key players in James Maddison and Destiny Udogie, the continued poor form of the strikers, and De Zerbi's own puzzling coaching mistakes in backtracking on what had previously been working very well (such as Mateus Fernandes in a true double pivot with Sandro Tonali).
But in a bigger picture view of the game, the Tottenham Hotspur loss is an important resetting of expectations for the club heading into the November international break. While Spurs are certainly much better than being winless through six games and had bad luck against them, they also did get a bit lucky in the wins over Chelse and Crystal Palace. The Blues had some great attacks on Andy Robertson that went unpunished, and their two goals were a bizarre own goal from Mike Penders and a crazy solo effort from Mathsy Tel. Meanwhile, Palace obviously had that early red card that ruined them.
Spurs problems against Leeds United were not unique or obscure to what has transpired throughout this season. Tottenham are not suddenly a team in the top five of the Premier League after being 17th in back to back seasons, but they are also not a relegation level, 17th placed team anymore either, which seemed to be their standing at the start of the season. Expectations for Spurs are somewhere in between, in the mid table, perhaps closer to seven than 11th once Xavi Simons returns and a new striker comes into the fold in the winter.
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