Although Roberto De Zerbi can pull a Thomas Frank lite and tell the press that Tottenham Hotspur deserved to win after a clearly inferior display in which he set the team up to fail with woeful personnel decisions, every Spurs fan saw that the team, as a whole, just wasn't good enough. Not even close.
It doesn't matter who is coaching Tottenham, there are serious issues in the squad, and it will take De Zerbi more than one or two games to fix all these issues. And there is still a lot for him to learn about the squad.
As terrible as the 1-0 loss to Sunderland was, there was one important positive that Spurs need to take with them going forward as a team. It was the performance of an individual, yes, but young goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky's bounce back display in his first game since that debacle at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League was a rare heartwarming moment in a season filled with turmoil.
Antonin Kinsky delivered under pressure
Kinsky was the best player on the pitch for Tottenham. Now, it is never a good sign when a goalkeeper is a team's best player in a game that they lost, but Kinsky was solid in goal and commanded his defense well. He did not waver on crosses or on the ball, and he avoided making any mistakes, which is important for a Spurs side that has burned themselves in so many games with terrible individual errors at the back.
He showed real toughness, too, getting injured by a wild Brian Brobbey, whose antics of absolute insanity should have been punished. Antonin Kinsky looked every bit the young, rising goalkeeper Tottenham Hotspur fans had him tabbed for, and he washed away a lot of the stain of the Atletico Madrid performance, which was the worst possible mix of pressure, rust, and rotten luck on a notoriously slippery pitch.
Kinsky did not slip against Sunderland, and though Tottenham were, once again, second best on this day, Kinsky's courageous outing has to be a point of inspiration for his teammates. With Guglielmo Vicario out recovering from finally getting hernia surgery, Kinsky looked every bit like the Tottenham No. 1, stepping in and delivering a match that was legitimately better than anything we have seen from Vicario in several weeks. But there is more to this story than just Kinsky challenging Vicario as the starter or getting more cred before the season ends and the transfer window begins.
Tottenham need a rallying point, and Kinsky just gave his teammates something real for them to look at and lift them. In the face of adversity and insane levels of criticism, Kinsky rose to the occasion, And it was wasted. Spurs players need to look at what this young man did and raise their games amidst the pressure just as he did - and to not waste the heroic performances of their teammates who are rising. The tide must bring all the ships to a higher level together.