It was a party atmosphere at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the final whistle. Spurs players collapsed to the ground in exhaustion — or maybe ecstasy — as Spurs completed a 1-0 home win over Everton, their first win at home since December 2025. The win couldn’t have come at a better time — West Ham defeated an on-the-beach Leeds United 3-0 to put pressure on Tottenham, but Spurs only needed a draw to relegate the Hammers, and a win was exactly the vibes boost that has been so desperately needed over the past
few months.
Since being appointed Tottenham manager, Roberto De Zerbi has managed something neither of his predecessors, Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, managed to do — win football matches. De Zerbi marshalled his critically injured squad of misfit toys to 11 points out of a possible 18: not great, but enough to keep Tottenham in the Premier League next season and give them a fighting chance to overhaul the squad this summer.
De Zerbi took the microphone in the post-match press conference and, naturally, was full of praise for his players.
“I’m happy but I enjoyed today. At the beginning of the day until now. Football is nice because if you give your best, maybe today. Maybe tomorrow. after tomorrow, you receive back everything from football. It’s incredible. And we deserve this day. We deserve this game. We deserve this win. We deserve everything of today.
“I think we deserve to stay up, because we made 11 points in seven games and we deserved more. My players played a fantastic game, as a spirit, as a behaviour, as an attitude, but also as a quality of the play. Especially in the first half. They played very well and I’m proud.”
De Zerbi then turned his attention on what Spurs need to do going forward. It’s no secret that Spurs are going to need a massive overhaul this summer to regain their competitiveness after fielding a completely broken and unbalance squad for the whole of the season. Interestingly, De Zerbi said that he has 10-12 players currently on the squad that he’d like to keep, but didn’t go into much detail as to whom.
“And from tonight we have to start to organise and to build a new team. I think we have now to change too many players. We have 10, 11, 12 players good enough to stay. Good enough. Like players. Especially like people. And then we have to complete the squad with the first level of players.
“First level of players because we suffered too much. I suffered a lot but I think the fans, the club, the board, the players. They suffered too much. We are Tottenham and we can’t suffer like this until the last second of the last game to stay up.
And I will be stronger. I will be stronger. I don’t want to decide alone because football is a group – sporting “director, scouting, CEO – but my target now is finished to stay up. My target is to start the pre-season with the team I have in my dream. Next season the target is to make them happier than this season for sure. I would like to compete, I don’t know for what, but stop suffering like this.“
10-12 players in a 25-man squad… isn’t a lot, but it’s good that he has a core in mind. It’s also not clear if those 10-12 players include the ones previous injured and whom RDZ hasn’t seen play — players like Dejan Kulusevski, Wilson Odobert, Mohammed Kudus, or Xavi Simons. De Zerbi did say that Joao Palhinha, Conor Gallagher, and Rodrigo Bentancur all make the cut.
“Yes, I would like to keep [Palhinha], 100%. We have to start from these people, before to speak about the players, we have to speak about the people.
“And we have to start. Then, I can’t give the place for everyone in the first eleven. Because I want to build two players in each position. But for sure, I would like him to stay with me. Like Conor Gallagher and Bentancur, the same.”
De Zerbi was asked which players were crucial in maintaining the positive attitude, and he highlighted a number, some of whom you might not expect. He singled out Djed Spence, who had a very good match at right wing in place of Randal Kolo Muani, as a significant contributor.
“Dragusin. [Radu] Dragusin was top because he didn’t play, but he was always positive inside the dressing room. Inside the pitch. Bentancur. Because Bentancur, when he came back from the injury, he wanted to play. He came to me to say, ‘hey, I want to play. I’m ready to play.’
“Joao Palhinha, because at the beginning of my time, he didn’t play in Sunderland, here with Brighton and Wolverhampton. Ben Davies. Yesterday, he came to the Lodge with us.
“Djed Spence. Before the Chelsea game he came in my office. Another one to say ‘I want to play.’ He said, ‘You always speak about the personality, the courage. I’m here, if you want to play with one player,’ and he was fantastic, I love it.
“Micky van de Ven. Great guy, sensitive guy. I spent a lot of time with him, because I consider him the best centre-back, left-centre-back in the Premier League, with Levi Colwill, because he was my former player and I can’t forget him. But a lot of other players. Richarlison, Archie Gray, I can’t say one.”
Who knows what the future holds for Tottenham under De Zerbi, but we know there’s going to be a LOT of change coming. Hopefully much of it is good, but batten down the hatches because the gates of Bat Country have now officially opened.
