Roberto De Zerbi at Tottenham: How new head coach has revitalised Spurs in four matches to turn fortunes around

It was meant to be over for Tottenham. No Premier League wins in 2026, and no immediate new-manager bounce under Roberto De Zerbi. The biggest question was whether he would stay around for the first Championship game next season.

But now Spurs are out of the relegation zone and finally have some momentum behind them for the first time in half a season.

De Zerbi arrived promising to keep things pragmatic, knowing he had only seven games to save his new side.

The Italian's methods are normally anything but that. Lewis Dunk, captain of former side Brighton, once referred to his first weeks at the Amex as "horrendous" and a "carnage fortnight" as they attempted to adapt to his demands. The Seagulls subsequently picked up just two points from his first five games in charge.

That wouldn't do at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - and it hasn't. Only Georginio Rutter's last-minute equaliser for Brighton has stood between De Zerbi and three wins from his first four games.

The goalkeepers baiting opposition and league-topping line-up changes have been tempered but De Zerbi has managed to introduce some of the hallmarks of his coaching to underpin Spurs' sudden improvement. The speed of his impact has been undoubtedly impressive.

There will be valid points raised about the quality of opposition, especially after Aston Villa's raft of changes in Spurs' 2-1 win on Sunday night. But for a team that had not won a single Premier League game in 15 attempts prior to beating Wolves a week earlier, it still took some doing - and now their survival is back in their own hands.

The signs of De Zerbi's high-pressing game have become increasingly evident across his first four games to the point that he has the best record of any single manager across the division of winning the ball back in the final third this season - an average of 5.3 times per game since his arrival.

That does come with the caveat of a small sample size but Spurs are on an upward trajectory even within his four games in charge, and have almost doubled the number of times they are winning the ball in those dangerous areas compared to the rest of the season.

Spurs are pressing better by being smarter. Their running numbers have dropped across the board - they are running slightly less but sprints have dropped by almost 10 per cent compared to before De Zerbi's arrival, despite their possession stats remaining largely level. Not pressing for pressing's sake.

That better organised, front-foot approach is having a different effect than you might expect. Yes, Spurs are winning the ball back closer to the opposition goal but only Xavi Simons' fine strike against Brighton directly owes anything to it. Spurs are barely creating more xG, striking at goal more or even getting shots away quicker than before De Zerbi arrived.

Instead, keeping opposition pressure away from Spurs' own goal is making a significant difference. They have given up less than a goal's worth of xG on average, 0.79xG per game under De Zerbi - a figure almost 50 per cent down from before his arrival when they were shipping 1.52xG every match.

Going by those numbers, Spurs' average goal difference per game has risen from a concerning -0.49xG per match into positive numbers for the first time all season.

There are further signs for optimism with Spurs conceding more since the Italian's arrival than the numbers would suggest. Though they could still be more watertight, De Zerbi can feel unfortunate that two of the four goals his side have conceded came from a Kaoru Mitoma wonder-goal and Nordi Mukiele's long-range deflected winner for Sunderland.

It's worth remembering that not everything was immediately plain sailing for De Zerbi.

The comparison between Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka's numbers alone against Spurs' midfield three in a 1-0 defeat at the Stadium of Light in his first game made for humiliating reading.

In that game, De Zerbi picked the young duo of Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall alongside Conor Gallagher and was badly burned.