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A missed opportunity for Tottenham Hotspur to take a huge step towards retaining their Premier League status or a point closer to safety?

The visit of Leeds United to north London offered Roberto De Zerbi’s side a chance to move four points clear of 18th-placed West Ham United with two games remaining. It would have left their relegation rivals with a mountain to climb.

They were on course to do just that when Mathys Tel’s fine strike put them in front early in the second half. But he was then at fault for Leeds’ equaliser, his high boot catching Ethan Ampadu, Dominic Calvert-Lewin scoring from the spot after a penalty was awarded by VAR.

Things might have got even worse for Spurs had Antonin Kinsky not produced a superb stop to deny Sean Longstaff in stoppage time.

The draw means Tottenham, who have struggled at home all season, are now two points clear of West Ham with two games remaining.

Jay Harris, Beren Cross and Elias Burke analyse the main talking points.

Did Tel just go from hero to villain?

Tel should have been Tottenham’s hero but a bizarre decision in the second half wrecked their chances of winning at home for the first time since December.

They were defending their own box when the ball looped up into the air and Tel made an unorthodox attempt to clear the danger with an overhead kick. Instead of connecting with the ball, the France Under-21 international made contact with Amapadu’s head and conceded a penalty.

Tel had started the game with a couple of erratic decisions. In the 20th minute, he was forced towards the byline by Daniel James and played a risky lofted pass across his own penalty area. Leeds wing-back James Justin was ready to direct a header past Kinsky but Kevin Danso just managed to flick the ball out of his path. When Tel received the ball in his own half a couple of minutes later and lost it carelessly, there were a few groans from the home fans.

Those groans turned into huge cheers at the beginning of the second half. The ball dropped to Tel on the edge of the box and he curled a right-footed shot into the top corner past Karl Darlow. It was similar to Xavi Simons’ stunning effort in last month’s 2-2 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion.

Unfortunately, as happened that time, the goal was cancelled out here, too. It was a damaging blow for Spurs, who failed to capitalise on West Ham’s dramatic defeat by Arsenal.

Tel’s progress has not been linear since he joined Spurs, initially on loan, from Bayern Munich in February 2025 and there are times when he looks capable of being the long-term successor to former captain Son Heung-min on the left wing. He is still a young player, though, and will hopefully learn a painful lesson from his costly error against Leeds.

Jay Harris

Will Spurs’ inability to win at home prove costly?

One of Tottenham’s biggest problems over the past two seasons has been their inability to win games at home. They have the joint-worst record in the Premier League, along with Burnley (12 points), and have conceded the most goals. There are lots of different reasons for their dismal home form, including the expectation from the fans and an inability to break teams down. The last time they won a game at home, Thomas Frank was still in charge and Brennan Johnson was an unused substitute in a 2-0 victory over Brentford on December 6.

They have come close on a few occasions, including last month’s agonising draw with Brighton & Hove Albion. Leeds deserved a point here but the frustrating thing for Spurs is that they allowed the game to drift away from them after a brief period of control following Tel’s goal.

Spurs seemed to run out of energy and their passing became sloppy. Leeds head coach Daniel Farke changed his formation and Spurs’ defence struggled to cope with Lukas Nmecha supporting Calvert-Lewin up front.

Spurs’ injury crisis is a significant factor because De Zerbi had limited options to change the game. Wilson Odobert, Dominic Solanke, Simons and Mohammed Kudus are all on the treatment table, so De Zerbi could not change his forward line.

The game became stretched after Calvert-Lewin’s equaliser and Spurs failed to generate any quality chances even after the long-awaited return of James Maddison.

Jay Harris

Were Leeds affected by already being safe?

Farke will have known exactly what to expect from the first question in his post-match press conference: did Leeds play like a team already safe from relegation?

They did virtually nothing to trouble Kinsky until Calvert-Lewin buried his 74th-minute penalty. Tottenham were much the better team, but had not really tested Darlow beyond Tel’s second-half strike.

Once the hosts were in front, a home win looked a formality unless Farke opted to roll the dice and change a setup which had clearly not been working. The substitutions came, but the system was not radically different.

Tottenham began to tire and Tel was ultimately punished for his reckless boot in his own box. It feels too simplistic to say Leeds had lost their edge because their Premier League status was secured.

Perhaps it is fairer to recognise, on paper, a Tottenham squad, at home, should always be the favourites against Leeds. United were always likely to be left hanging in there at points.

James did not work as an experiment at wing-back in the absence of Jayden Bogle and Gabriel Gudmundsson. Brenden Aaronson was anonymous. Calvert-Lewin was isolated. Pascal Struijk could not get a handle on Randal Kolo Muani.

And yet, they soaked up the pressure before putting their superior fitness to work in the latter stages. A point, at any period of this season, is a good outcome for Leeds at the home of the Europa League champions.

Beren Cross

How significant might Maddison’s return prove?

De Zerbi has kept his cards close to his chest when he has been asked about Maddison’s fitness. The England international has been named in the matchday squad for their past four games but the Italian head coach kept insisting he was only included for his leadership qualities.

Maddison suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in August on the final game of Tottenham’s pre-season tour to Hong Kong and South Korea and the assumption was he would be ruled out for the entire season. He deserves immense credit for returning sooner than expected.

Spurs fans cheered when Maddison started warming up in the first half but it was nothing compared to the response he received when they realised he was going to come on. The entire stadium stood up and applauded as he replaced Tel.

When Maddison tumbled under a challenge late in stoppage time, it seemed he might have been involved in a game-changing moment, but a VAR review decided not to award a penalty.

Ultimately, Maddison was unable to inspire a victory but he could have an important role to play in their final two games of the campaign.

Jay Harris

Did Kinsky just prove he is Tottenham’s No 1?

Antonin Kinsky has been one of the most impressive performers of the new De Zerbi era and he pulled off a brilliant reaction save eight minutes into added time to stop Leeds from going 2-1 up.

With Sean Longstaff racing through on goal from an angle, Kinsky reacted fast to get a strong hand onto the ball and divert it up onto the bar and away. It was pure instinct, a split-second moment of genius, but it saved that crucial point for Spurs.

It was not even Kinsky’s only great save of the night. In the first half, he dived down low to his left to claw away a Joe Rodon header that was going in the near bottom corner, stopping it when it was halfway across the line.

Those two saves alone proved what a good keeper Kinsky is, confirming his ability to come up with a brilliant moment even though he was not always busy. And they showed — even before you get to his excellent distribution — why Kinsky should now be considered Tottenham’s No 1.

What does this result mean for the relegation battle?

West Ham were given a major lifeline in the relegation battle by Tel, whose error enabled Calvert-Lewin to keep the relegation battle very much alive.

Until that point, Tottenham looked to be on their way to a crucial three points. Tel’s excellent finish had put Spurs on the “magic” 40-point mark in the as-it-stands table. That would have meant West Ham would need to win both of their remaining two games, while hoping Tottenham took no more than one point from their final two games, given their superior goal difference.

Now, though, the gap is just two points, leaving West Ham just a win away from 17th.

West Ham sit 18th on 36 points, two away from Tottenham. They have the opportunity to get that much-needed win on the board on Sunday, when they travel to Newcastle United.

Spurs do not play until Tuesday, when they travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea — who will be in the FA Cup final three days before. It is a ground they have not won at since 2018.

Should results dictate that their futures come down to the final day, Leeds will, again, have a huge part to play. They travel to the London Stadium on Sunday, May 24, while Tottenham host Everton at the same time.

Elias Burke

What next for Spurs?

Tuesday, May 19: Chelsea (Away), Premier League, 8.15pm UK, 3.15pm ET

What next for Leeds?

Tottenham Hotspur host Leeds United today in a crucial game in their battle to avoid Premier League relegation.

Spurs have won their past two games under Roberto De Zerbi as they mount a late challenge to avoid a first relegation in 49 years.

For Leeds, a run of six league games without defeat has secured safety to guarantee Premier League football for them next season.

Start time: 8pm BST, 3pm ET, noon PT

How to watch: Sky Sports (UK), USA Network (U.S.)

Join the Discuss tab or email your thoughts: live@theathletic.com

I said a few weeks ago that Tottenham were in danger of going down without a fight. Contrary to his billing as an idealist, fight is the one thing Roberto De Zerbi has instilled in them immediately.

They are playing with a totally different attitude, a team no longer drifting aimlessly towards relegation. If they had performed all season with just a fraction of the intensity and desire Leeds have shown, they would not have been in this position in the first place.

Unlike Leeds, they still have work to do.

Tottenham 2-1 Leeds

Will Spurs get relegated?

Is Roberto De Zerbi the right manager for them?

How do you rate Leeds’ first season back in the top flight?

Send us your thoughts on the above — or anything else related to tonight’s game — by heading to the Discuss tab at the top of the page or emailing live@theathletic.com.

We’ll aim to include your response in our live coverage this evening.

A narrow FA Cup semi-final defeat against Chelsea may have dampened the end of Leeds’ season, but their league form has given supporters plenty to cheer about of late.

Their most recent result — a 3-1 victory against relegated Burnley — took Daniel Farke’s side above the 40-point mark and further away from the relegation zone.

That was Leeds’ third win in four league games — a big step towards top-flight survival, which was confirmed with West Ham's defeat by Arsenal on Sunday.

If Spurs are to be relegated from the Premier League, then at the moment they are going down fighting.

Their last outing was a massive 2-1 victory at Aston Villa courtesy of first-half goals from Conor Gallagher and Richarlison, with Emi Buendia getting a late consolation for the hosts.

That added to a 1-0 victory at relegated Wolves the previous week and hauled Spurs above London rivals West Ham and out of the bottom three.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

Lauded as one of the best stadiums in Europe when it was completed in 2019, the venue has a capacity of 62,850.

The towering South Stand in particular is a sight to behold, seating 17,500 in a single tier and measuring more than 34 metres in height.

The club’s emblem, a cockerel, is perched on top in gold.

The stadium has also been used as a concert venue and hosts several NFL games each year, as well as all of Spurs’ home matches.

There is no better time to subscribe to The Athletic for all the sporting insight, analysis and live coverage you need.

As well as the conclusion of the Champions League and Premier League seasons, we have one of the biggest events in the sporting calendar coming up with the World Cup later this year.

The Formula 1 season is now in full flow and we’ll also be covering the remaining men’s golf majors, including this week's PGA Championship.

And that is just the start — you can, and should, subscribe to The Athletic on an exclusive offer here.

The mood around Tottenham Hotspur has been transformed over the last two weeks. At one stage on April 25, when Spurs were drawing with Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United were beating Everton, it looked like they could finish the day four points off safety. Throw in a season-ending injury to Xavi Simons and, understandably, there were a lot of sombre-looking faces in the away end at Molineux, grappling with the prospect of spending next year in the Championship.

Joao Palhinha’s scrappy 82nd-minute strike earned Spurs their first win in the Premier League since December and they followed it up with an impressive 2-1 victory over Aston Villa. West Ham’s 3-0 defeat at Brentford allowed Spurs to jump out of the relegation zone and now with three games of this miserable season remaining, their destiny is back in their own hands.

Tottenham’s away points tally (26) is only bettered by league leaders Arsenal (35) and second-placed Manchester City (32), but the fact their one remaining away game is at Chelsea, where they have only won once in the last 36 years, would suggest they probably shouldn’t bank on bumping their away points total to 29.

Spurs host Leeds United on Monday evening, before welcoming Everton on the final day of the campaign. However there is one complication: They have only won two home league games all season.

The most recent came way back on December 6, when Richarlison and Xavi Simons scored in a comfortable victory over Brentford. It was also the last time they kept a Premier League clean sheet in front of their own supporters.

Spurs now have the worst home record in the division this season, thanks to Burnley’s point against Aston Villa on Sunday. They have lost 10 times, conceded 30 goals and only accumulated 11 points.

To ensure their Premier League survival, that surely has to change.

Tottenham’s record was also underwhelming last season under Ange Postecoglou — even if not quite so disastrous.

They won 21 points from 19 games, which was level with Wolves and marginally better than West Ham (20). The three worst-performing sides at home were all relegated.

Since the start of the 2024-25 season, Spurs have the worst home record out of the ever-present top-flight sides. They have won fewer games than Wolves and conceded the same amount of goals.

Spurs have a measly average of 0.89 points per Premier League home game in that time. No wonder the fanbase, who pay some of the most expensive ticket prices in the division, have so often lost patience with the team and ownership over the last 12 months.

“There is a lot of literature and data out there on home advantage but certain clubs struggle with the expectations of the fans versus the reality of where the team is,” Dan Abrahams, a sport psychologist who has worked with teams and individual athletes around the world, tells The Athletic.

“Players think, ‘If I make one mistake, the crowd are going to get on my back’. It is anxiety-inducing, which can have an impact on awareness, anticipation, decision-making, physical functioning and technical co-ordination. It makes good players look poor. There have been examples this season of players experiencing extreme performance anxiety probably for the first time in their careers.”

It is an issue they need to address even if head coach Roberto De Zerbi does not sound too concerned.

“It’s not my problem now,” the Italian said when asked about the club’s struggles at home ahead of Monday’s fixture against Leeds. “Now, I don’t want to lose energy. We have to be good, smart, to keep this mentality, to keep this momentum, with the same qualities we showed in this last period. Then we go to analyse why we have not won too many games at home, what were the problems at home.

“But I think it was a coincidence, because against Atletico Madrid they won, against Borussia Dortmund in January they won in the Champions League. If you ask me, against Brighton, we won. We won, but we didn’t take three points. We took one point, but in my head, we won. As a performance, if we analyse the game against Brighton, it’s like a win. I think it’s a mistake if we keep the focus on this part.”

The atmosphere at the stadium was superb during Postecoglou’s first year in charge but it unravelled last season when progress in the top flight was sacrificed for Europa League success. Frank never had a chance of uniting the crowd following lethargic home defeats to Chelsea, Fulham and Arsenal.

Before March’s humbling loss to Nottingham Forest, which turned out to be Igor Tudor’s last game in charge, a group of fans wrote an open letter to the squad on social media which included the lines “we are right behind you and we believe in you”. The message was shared by multiple players including vice-captain Micky Van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario and Kevin Danso. A group of supporters called Show Up, Sing Up, Stay Up organised for thousands of fans to greet the team bus. ahead of the game, with some standing on bus stops and hanging from lamp posts as the players arrived in N17. Blue flares were lit, flags and banners were handed out in the stands. Spurs started brightly against Forest but collapsed when Igor Jesus scored just before half-time.

So much pressure and weight had been put on that fixture that it risked becoming “emotionally exhausting,” according to Tom Bates, a performance psychologist with experience working at several Premier League clubs and the Team GB Olympic squad. “I’m pretty sure that (the fans) were all doing that with the best of intentions,” Bates tells The Athletic. “They’re trying to create an injection of emotion. Of power, positivity, optimism, enthusiasm, all of that good stuff, but it is counter-intuitive.

“The key is not placing so much emphasis on one game, moment, player or situation. Instead, think, ‘From now until the end of the season, collectively, our aim is to achieve what?’ The pressure that gets created by turning every game into a cup final is the opposite. It creates emotional fatigue.”

Show Up, Sing Up, Stay Up had loose plans to meet the team bus for the remainder of the season but De Zerbi wanted the players to make their own travel arrangements for the 2-2 draw with his former side Brighton & Hove Albion. De Zerbi likes his squad to arrive at the stadium four hours before kick-off. They have a meeting which lasts up to 45 minutes and then have a meal together.

“I don’t want to put pressure on the players with my plan but what the fans want to do, is good for us, it’s something more,” De Zerbi said in his press conference before Brighton. “I didn’t know the fans wanted to make again this (gesture). I am very sensitive with the fans and what they want to do, I consider the fans in every team I’ve been as a player, like a player. But I didn’t know but for the next time, if the people ask me to change the plan, no problem.”

Spurs have recorded victories over Man City, Everton, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace on the road and picked up draws against Newcastle United and Liverpool. They have won a higher proportion of their points away from home (70 per cent) than any other team in any season in Premier League history. They managed to beat Wolves at Molineux despite Dominic Solanke and Xavi suffering injuries. The key is to transport those performances to north London. Even celebrating tackles can make a small difference.

“Footballers can be shy about (celebrating) but desperate times call for desperate measures,” Abrahams says. “Those mini celebrations after winning a duel, the psychology backs it up, they are letting their bodies and actions lead their mindset. De Zerbi has to draw on that and say, ‘Our job is to do that, raise the temperature in the stadium in the first five to 10 minutes to set the tone and stay there’. He will be striving to create a narrative of ‘we did that (against Aston Villa) and I want exactly the same at home’.”

De Zerbi has been adept at managing the noise around Spurs, particularly when compared to Frank and Tudor, who were both guilty of fanning the flames at times. After Rutter’s last-minute equaliser for Brighton, De Zerbi said the squad needed “to come to training on Monday with a smile or go home”.

Reflecting on Xavi’s anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, the Italian said “the challenge now is to silence the voice inside of us” which “produces negative thoughts”.

“I heard, ‘It’s impossible, we are crying, everyone is crying, we are relegated’ — no, not yet,” he added. He has uplifted the squad and the fanbase.

Abrahams is full of praise for De Zerbi’s messaging. “The sensibility of most head coaches is to ignore the outside world and focus on the team’s processes and your own individual responsibilities,” he says. “You have to take control of the language, the temperature, the culture and environment. That’s exactly what De Zerbi is doing and he has got a big enough persona to do that.”

De Zerbi took a gamble joining Spurs with only seven games remaining. He boldly predicted Spurs could win five games in a row after that draw with Brighton and they have ticked off the first two. If he manages to help Spurs win at home for the first time in 156 days, supporters can start optimistically thinking about the future again.

Two years ago, Archie Gray was preparing for the first leg of Leeds United’s Championship play-off semi-final against Norwich City at Carrow Road.

The then 18-year-old started in an advanced midfield role behind Georginio Rutter, Crysencio Summerville and Wilfried Gnonto in a 0-0 draw. Four days later, Gray played the full 90 minutes at right-back in a crushing 4-0 victory in the return leg at Elland Road. Gray retained his position at full-back for Leeds’ 1-0 defeat to Southampton in the play-off final.

Within a month, he was at the centre of a dramatic transfer tussle between Brentford and Tottenham Hotspur. Gray was on the cusp of joining Brentford before changing his mind at the last minute and completing a £40million move to Spurs.

Gray will be reunited with his former employers, and the club his family shares a fascinating history with, on Monday when Spurs host Leeds. He will be desperate to make an appearance after being an unused substitute under Thomas Frank when Spurs won 2-1 at Elland Road in October.

The visit of Leeds raises questions about Gray’s development in north London over the last two years and what the future holds. Game time has been limited since Roberto De Zerbi replaced Igor Tudor in the dugout in March, but Gray’s new boss insists his hopes for the youngster are high.

“He is very young, (but has) big potential as a player,” De Zerbi said in his press conference ahead of the Leeds game. “I think he can become the future. I am sure he can become the future of this club, the captain of this club and he has to understand better what will be his position on the pitch.”

Following Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat to Sunderland in De Zerbi’s first game in charge, television pundit Jamie Carragher criticised their central midfield.

Carragher argued on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football that West Ham United, Nottingham Forest and Leeds have better options than Spurs. The former Liverpool and England defender highlighted their lack of quality in possession before pointing out Gray and Conor Gallagher’s poor defending in the build-up to Nordi Mukiele’s deflected winner. He did offer some faint praise for the former.

“I think (Lucas) Bergvall and Gray have been two of the better players for Spurs,” Carragher said. “(But) are two young kids learning their trade going to get you out of a relegation battle?”

Bergvall, Gray and Gallagher started together against Sunderland last month. Since then, De Zerbi has seemingly agreed with Carragher’s analysis. The Italian has kept faith with Gallagher but preferred the experience of Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma or Joao Palhinha alongside him. Bentancur’s return from a three-month lay-off with a hamstring injury has had a significant impact. The Uruguay international looks composed on the ball under pressure and more capable of playing progressive passes. Spurs have won seven points from the last three games Bentancur has started.

Palhinha scored the crucial winner against Wolverhampton Wanderers and was excellent out of possession in his first start under De Zerbi against Aston Villa. Gallagher rewarded De Zerbi’s patience with a stunning long-range strike in the 2-1 victory over Unai Emery’s side at Villa Park. The Bentancur and Palhinha partnership, which became a source of frustration for fans during Frank’s reign for a perceived lack of creativity, suddenly looks like the right blend to help Spurs avoid relegation. De Zerbi has now publicly expressed his desire to keep Palhinha beyond the end of his season-long loan from Bayern Munich.

Gray made a 30-minute cameo off the bench in De Zerbi’s second game, the 2-2 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion, but has been an unused substitute in their last two matches. He has been transformed from one of the only players to emerge with any credit from Tudor’s brief spell to a spectator.

Gray’s progress has been disrupted by Tottenham’s injury crisis over the last two seasons. The England Under-21 international has never been able to consistently play in midfield because he has always provided emergency cover in defence. The 20-year-old has therefore been unable to establish a more exact role in the midfield. Gray’s position map for the 2025-26 season demonstrates he has regularly switched between holding midfield and a slightly more advanced position.

Gray started 12 games in a row across the Premier League and Champions League between February and April. He played in three different positions (central midfield, left-back and right-back) under three head coaches. Gray has made 80 appearances since he joined Spurs from Leeds, and worked with Ange Postecoglou, Frank, Tudor and De Zerbi. Each coach has their own tactical ideas and instructions for the players — Gray has barely any time to learn them before the next head coach is installed.

Some would argue Gray made a mistake in the build-up to Callum Hudson-Odoi’s first goal in Nottingham Forest’s 3-0 victory over Spurs in December. Gray received the ball from goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario on the edge of his own box and should have played a first-time pass to Cristian Romero. Instead, Ibrahim Sangare pounced on his loose first touch and played in Hudson-Odoi. Gray started Tottenham’s next four matches in central midfield but since the turn of the year has again regularly been deployed across the defence, and sometimes on the right of midfield. How is he supposed to become better at receiving the ball in those situations if he rarely plays there?

If Gray’s development has stalled, it is a symptom of Spurs’ struggles over the last two seasons. The 20-year-old’s versatility has become a strength and a weakness. De Zerbi alluded to this on Thursday.

“He can play in a lot of positions, but maybe I would like him to be more specific in one position,” De Zerbi said. “We are working on that, in individual meetings with individual clips for me and anyway he is an important player. Palhinha did not play the first three games and the fourth was one of the best players on the pitch.”

This pattern has followed Gray throughout his career. At 17 he impressed for Leeds in a fifth-round FA Cup tie against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in February 2024. Gray played in a midfield pivot alongside Ethan Ampadu and his tackle on Moises Caicedo on the edge of Chelsea’s box led to Mateo Joseph giving Leeds a 1-0 lead.

Chelsea went on to win 3-2, Gallagher scoring the decisive goal, but Gray held his own against Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez who had just moved to west London for £106m after winning the World Cup with Argentina.

Gray’s reward? A place at right-back for a 1-1 draw with Huddersfield Town in the Championship three days later.

Gray has also played in a variety of different positions at youth level and scored when playing in midfield alongside Borussia Dortmund’s Jobe Bellingham in England U21s 4-1 victory over Moldova in March.

A lot of this applies to Bergvall too. It feels like the pair’s fate is intertwined. They both joined Spurs in the summer of 2024 when they were only 18, play in the same position and have a good relationship off the pitch. Postecoglou memorably praised them after Bergvall scored in Spurs’ 1-0 victory over Liverpool in the first leg of last season’s Carabao Cup semi-final. Gray started that game at centre-back alongside Radu Dragusin.

“I’m so happy they’re at our football club,” Postecoglou said. “In two or three years’ time, I just pray to God I’m the beneficiary of their talent, mate, because if somebody else is getting it, I won’t be happy.”

Clearly, the only focus for Spurs right now should be picking up enough points in their remaining three games to avoid relegation. Next season, there needs to be a consistent long-term plan to help Gray and Bergvall fulfil their potential. On the opening day of the campaign, the duo started together in midfield with Pape Matar Sarr in a 3-0 victory over Burnley. It was a youthful blend which offered an exciting glimpse of the future but, unfortunately, none of them have truly flourished this season.

In Tottenham Hotspur’s current circumstances, it is difficult, perhaps even futile, to look past results when analysing their matches under Roberto De Zerbi.

After all, he was appointed during the March international break with seven league games remaining to direct the club towards one outcome: survival.

Achieve that, by any means necessary, and he’s a hero. If he falls short, something he will bear little responsibility for, Tottenham face at least a season in the Championship; uncharted territory for a club of their riches and global profile with potentially long-term sporting and financial consequences.

But in just over a month in charge, De Zerbi’s messaging and tactical tweaks have completely transformed a club that looked set for the drop. The Spurs boss has repeatedly maintained that he feels “lucky” to be coaching such an accomplished group, name-checking players like Conor Gallagher who were ineffective and playing well below par under Igor Tudor and Thomas Frank. That messaging has rejuvenated the playing group who now seem to be relishing the weight of the challenge at hand after wilting under it for months.

And on the pitch, De Zerbi has proven, even in the midst of a relegation battle, that substance and style are not mutually exclusive.

Despite the high stakes, Tottenham are playing with freedom, doggedness and technical composure, with Sunday’s 2-1 away win at Aston Villa a combination of those match-winning qualities. Tottenham have collected seven points from their last three matches, including their first and second league wins of 2026, but last weekend’s display at Villa Park was by far their best performance and result of the calendar year so far — and, considering the circumstances, arguably their best outing this season.

In possession, Tottenham’s footballing revolution has started with Antonin Kinsky. Being at Villa Park on Sunday and listening to home fans shouting to pressurise Kinsky, it is apparent that the collective footballing conscience is not yet aware of how he has entirely rebuilt his reputation and standing at Spurs under De Zerbi after his horror 17 minutes in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid in March. In fact, those supporters’ desire to see their team press the 23-year-old inadvertently helped him as it allowed for opportunities to break Villa’s lines.

Here’s an example of Tottenham doing just that. Despite changes to the midfield, Spurs continued to try to play the same way at 2-0 up in the second half, with Yves Bissouma, a player De Zerbi has placed faith in since taking the job, replacing Rodrigo Bentancur as the central target for short passes.

Villa midfielder Youri Tielemans is on Bissouma’s tail when Kinsky drops a short pass towards the Mali international, adding heightened risk and reward to Bissouma’s decision to come short. If he can spin away or find a pass, it can speed up Spurs’ attack. If he makes a mistake in possession, it will almost certainly lead to a great goalscoring chance for the home side.

Bissouma deals with the danger expertly, chipping a pass wide to Kevin Danso, who moves the attack wide to Djed Spence. The move ultimately ends with a good opportunity for Spence, who shoots narrowly wide from inside the box with his left foot.

“He’s given us loads of solutions and I feel like everybody knows exactly what the manager wants, how we want to play,” Danso told Spurs’ in-house media after the game on Sunday. “I feel we look calm, and we also feel calm, especially when we have the ball. I feel like we’re really good defenders, and when it comes to that, I think we continue to do well and show our qualities.”

Bentancur was outstanding before being replaced in the 67th minute due to tiredness. His desire to receive the ball in tight spaces, an intention Bissouma shares, and his press-resistance allows De Zerbi to build through a central target. Under Frank, attacks were often funnelled wide, particularly towards Mohammed Kudus and Pedro Porro on the right. Tudor further increased Tottenham’s reliance on wide attacks by implementing a system with wing-backs, thereby removing a body from central midfield. While De Zerbi continues to use the flanks, central progression is also encouraged — giving Bentancur the platform to shine.

Here’s one example of the Uruguay international receiving a pass under pressure before dummying his marker and passing on to Kinsky, who assumes a playmaker role under De Zerbi.

Bentancur’s comfort in these areas is a primary reason he has been preferred over Archie Gray in recent weeks, despite Gray having an impressive sophomore season in north London. In Spurs’ 3-0 away defeat to Nottingham Forest in December, Gray received a pass in a similar area to the one Bissouma dealt with so well but in that case, the 20-year-old lost possession, leading to a goal.

There is no questioning Gray’s application and potential, but De Zerbi requires his midfielders to be sharp and technically secure for his build-up play to fall on the right side of the risk-reward balance, so it is an area he will likely have to improve to get back into the side.

Bentancur’s return has also allowed Tottenham to be more considered and patient in possession. Under Frank and Tudor, Tottenham played a more macro style of football, emphasising long balls and large spaces. De Zerbi, on the other hand, prefers to build patterns based on short passing, which seems to suit more capable technicians like Porro and Randal Kolo Muani, his preferred right-sided combination.

Here’s one instance of Spurs building through Bentancur and their right-sided attackers.

In this sequence, Porro moves into the right half-space, a position where he has the technical security and the final ball to be effective. Against Brighton, Porro opened the scoring from a central position, heading past Bart Verbruggen after Xavi Simons found him drifting behind the Brighton back line. Porro was not so advanced against Villa but was effective from the right “No 8” position in possession, swapping with Joao Palhinha, who filled in at right-back.

It’s a tactical tweak from De Zerbi that suits the pair, pushing Palhinha to defend on the front foot and make more straightforward technical passes, while allowing Porro to influence the game as an attacking force.

Tottenham were less fluid in April’s 1-0 away win against Wolverhampton Wanderers but that reflects more on Rob Edwards’ structured system. This is very much a first iteration of De Zerbi’s Spurs, and, in time, the Italian will surely look to improve the team’s potency against lower blocks, though failing to continue evolving in that area beyond the initial stylistic revolution has been a longstanding criticism of his from previous roles in charge, particularly at Shakhtar Donetsk.

But if Spurs stutter in possession in their final three matches, they can bank on their set-piece threat, which has continued under De Zerbi, and a rampant press.

Despite their improvements with the ball, Tottenham’s out-of-possession work was the driver behind their success against Villa. Led by Gallagher, who delivered a man-of-the-match performance as a pressing No 10, Tottenham’s midfield combined maniacal desire and coordination to win possession high inside Villa’s half.

Here’s an example of how Tottenham’s structure without the ball led to a loose pass from goalkeeper Emi Martinez.

With Lamare Bogarde ahead of him, Victor Lindelof to his right and Tyrone Mings to his left, Martinez has three options if he decides to go short. Bogarde, who may be the best option to turn defence into attack quickly, is crowded out by Spurs players, while both wide options will also be under pressure quickly if they receive it. Martinez goes wide to Lindelof, who gives it straight back.

Now, Spurs’ press has converged further towards Martinez, who has issues with the three short options shown with red lines. Under pressure, the Argentina international tries to split the Spurs midfield with a long ground pass towards Ross Barkley, who has dropped deeper to provide another outlet.

But Bentancur takes advantage of a poor pass, winning possession and creating a sequence that leads to a good chance for Richarlison inside two minutes.

Here’s another sequence, just a few minutes later, of Tottenham’s press stopping a Villa attack building through the centre.

Compare that to Emi Buendia’s goal when Spurs lost 2-1 to Villa in the FA Cup third round in January, and the differences in urgency and structure are stark.

Gallagher’s performance without the ball led De Zerbi to say that it felt like having 12 players after the game, praising his ability to influence matches across the pitch. The midfielder’s most decisive contribution, however, was with the ball, powering home a shot from 20 yards after 12 minutes — his first goal for the club.

It marks another example of how Spurs are now willing to let fly from distance, after seemingly avoiding long-range strikes under Frank. In fact, Palhinha hit the post minutes after Gallagher’s goal from even further out. Simons also scored a stunning goal from the edge of the box in the 2-2 draw with Brighton.

Stunning or not, Tottenham now appear to have several ways to score goals and win games under De Zerbi, even without the creative inspiration of Simons or the long-term injured duo Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison.

Crucially, thanks to De Zerbi’s impact, Tottenham don’t just have the tactical plan to do that, but the belief to back it up.

If you have ever caught yourself scrolling on Instagram Reels or TikTok, chances are you have come across a retired forward “building” their perfect Premier League striker.

In almost every category, the options are plentiful and debate-worthy. Wayne Rooney chose Cristiano Ronaldo for heading and finishing, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for speed. Alan Shearer opted for Duncan Ferguson for heading and Andy Cole for finishing, though he would be an appropriate pick for both. There are almost zero undisputed masters of one skill across all Premier League strikers, but when it comes to first touch, there is only ever one answer: Dimitar Berbatov.

Berbatov scored 94 Premier League goals across spells at Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Fulham, and is a two-time Premier League and League Cup winner, yet his deft control became his trademark. Having retired in 2018, the 45-year-old regularly posts videos on social media of himself practising his touch at home in his native Bulgaria, and describes it as his best skill.

On May 31, he will display that feather touch on English soil again when he features for the World XI in Soccer Aid.

He has played twice previously in the charity game run by UNICEF, scoring twice in the 2016 edition and playing primarily in defence in 2022. In a much deeper role than he’s used to, he bossed the game from centre-back in that second run-out, completing 37 of his 38 passes (97 per cent), according to FotMob, Soccer Aid’s official data partner.

This year, Soccer Aid returns to the London Stadium, home of West Ham United, who are currently in a tense relegation battle with Spurs, the club where Berbatov made his name in England. He arrived in north London in 2006 and helped win the 2008 League Cup before leaving for Manchester United a few months later.

A crucial 2-1 victory on Sunday against Aston Villa lifted Tottenham out of the bottom three, one point ahead of West Ham in 18th, and Berbatov is confident they have enough to beat the drop.

“I want them to stay in the Premier League. I can’t even imagine them going down,” Berbatov, who scored 27 league goals for Spurs across two seasons, tells The Athletic. “They’re in a tough spot, and I’ve been there, actually, with my former team Bayer Leverkusen (in Germany), so I know how nerve-racking it can be to be near the bottom and fighting for survival.

“Even to associate this type of sentence with Spurs, survival in the Premier League and Spurs — I never thought that I would ever talk about something like this.

“When you’re in a position like this, the pressure is too much sometimes. I hope the boys can stay strong in the head. They have the quality. They have good players, they just need concentration and to stay strong in the head.”

Roberto De Zerbi’s side impressed without the ball at Villa Park, led by midfield trio Joao Palhinha, Rodrigo Bentancur and Conor Gallagher. This high-intensity style may be the Italian’s best route to success in the final three matches of the Premier League season, after inheriting the ongoing injury saga that started under Ange Postecoglou last season and continued in the current one under Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor. De Zerbi will be without Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus, Cristian Romero and Xavi Simons for the remainder of the season.

“They do have the qualities, but the injury to Xavi Simons is a big blow,” says Berbatov, referencing how the Dutch forward ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the 1-0 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers last week. “He was just starting to show how big a talent he is. I like him a lot. This is how cruel football can be.

“The list of injured players can show you a deeper issue going on. It’s about how the players take care of themselves before, during and after the games, how they relax and take care of their bodies. Then comes the medical department, the physios, the doctors and how they’re caring for injured players. It’s all connected. And sometimes, if there are many injuries, you need to check this over. Also, the training methods: are they training when they’re a bit injured? Sometimes players should rest, and training can cause muscle stress. It’s been a problem for Spurs for quite some time.”

Tottenham’s injury woes may be the main reason for their alarming slide from perennial European-qualification contenders to relegation candidates over the past two seasons. But there have also been frequent changes in the dugout, with seven managers since Mauricio Pochettino was sacked in November 2019, and a major change in the boardroom, with the Lewis family removing Daniel Levy from his role as executive chairman last September.

Levy had been chairman since 2001, and Berbatov became well aware of his infamously tough negotiation style, waiting until the final day of the summer 2008 transfer window to sanction his move to Old Trafford.

In Berbatov’s view, a lack of continuity leads to instability within a club, which eventually seeps into the dressing room.

“If there’s no stability in the football club, it’s going to affect everybody down the chain,” says Berbatov. “In the case of Daniel Levy, who I obviously had a working relationship with back in the day, he was always there to support the team and put it first. The stadium, the training ground, state-of-the-art facilities… he knows how to do business and make money with the team, and then invest it into the team and into the new stadium and training facility.

“When that time is gone, and a new chairman steps in, it can raise questions. It can lead to instability within the team, especially when you’re losing games. So that can altogether bring a stressful situation for the players. And it can lead to losing games, as simple as that. Are Levy leaving and Spurs’ current position interconnected? Would they be in this position if Levy were still there? They’re relevant questions, but I don’t know the answer.”

But for the Bulgarian, there’s no doubt about what decision Manchester United’s board should take on his former team-mate Michael Carrick. Since replacing the fired Ruben Amorim on an interim basis in January, Carrick has won 10 of his 14 matches in charge, including beating Manchester City, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool. In Berbatov’s view, that makes him a no-brainer permanent appointment come the summer.

“United were in a bad situation before, now we are third, and qualified for the Champions League,” he says. “So if that’s not Michael Carrick and his team doing the right job, I don’t know what it is. So I truly hope that whoever needs to decide their next coach says, ‘Michael, you’ve done a terrific job, pulled us out of a difficult situation, and you deserve to continue’. I mean, that’s logical thinking. But sometimes in football, logic is not present.”

Carrick immediately switched away from the rigid 3-4-3 formation used under Amorim and implemented a 4-2-3-1 shape, restoring many of United’s best players, notably Bruno Fernandes, to their most comfortable roles. They are also playing more passes, focusing possession through the middle of the pitch, and not committing to such a high press.

“The players are the same from Amorim, but you can see the clear difference in how the team is playing,” Berbatov says. “Sometimes it’s not even about tactics; it’s about the manager’s ability to communicate with the players. When you’re talking about big teams, it usually means big players with big egos, so you need to know how to speak with them. You need to know how to put your message into them so they can put it onto the pitch.

“Sometimes, these players just need to know that you believe in them and give them the freedom to do what they need to do on the pitch. You know this is also about conversation, dialogues between each other. Casemiro has won five Champions Leagues — he knows how to boss a midfield. Just go out there and do your job.

“You have managers who understand man-management, how to speak with you differently, because everybody is different. That’s exactly what United needed, and Michael has produced it.”

It felt very strange, disconcerting even, to watch a top-five Premier League side at the weekend waving the white flag of surrender so meekly against a team that had the chilly fingers of relegation closing round their necks.

“Angry fans claim Unai Emery’s line-up against Spurs needs investigating,” read the headline on the Daily Mail’s website after Aston Villa’s obliging 2-1 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

Other newspapers and media outlets reported the same. And while it is not usually recommended to base entire articles on social-media discourse, it was easy to understand on this occasion why so many people had been worked up into a froth of indignation.

Emery had made seven changes to his team, conscious that Villa had a six-point cushion in the Champions League qualifying positions and prioritising their Europa League semi-final against Nottingham Forest on Thursday.

His team went on to produce the most half-hearted performance you might see from any club in England’s top four divisions this season. Don’t be fooled by the scoreline. Villa were atrocious and the ramifications for West Ham, in particular, could be grievous bearing in mind Spurs have gratefully leapfrogged their London rivals to move out of the relegation places.

Don’t assume either that this might be the last occasion this season that something of this nature occurs.

Just imagine Crystal Palace’s priorities if they were to get to the Europa Conference League final. Oliver Glasner’s team have a 3-1 lead over Shakhtar Donetsk from the first leg. The return fixture is at Selhurst Park on Thursday and, if Palace make it through, they will head to Leipzig, Germany, on May 27 for the first-ever European final in their history.

Yet, three days earlier, they have a Premier League game that might go a long way to deciding the destination of the title. Their opposition on May 24 is Arsenal, currently locked in a two-way battle with Manchester City for the silverware. And who, realistically, could imagine Glasner fielding a full-strength side against Arsenal if the alternative is to keep back his first-choice XI for the final?

Unfortunately for City, five points adrift with a game in hand after their draw at Everton, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done about it.

They can feel aggrieved, yes, and we can be sure there will be complaints about the integrity of the competition being in question (not that City, for obvious reasons, usually get much sympathy on that front). Yet it would be futile calling for investigations or top-level intervention when the reality is that if City were in that position — or any other team, for that matter — they would do exactly the same.

The same applies to West Ham, as the team that has suffered the most from Villa’s anaemic performance at the weekend. West Ham, indeed, should know better than most that this is not a new development. They have, after all, been on the other side of this story in the past.

On the final day of the 2006-07 season, West Ham needed a point at Manchester United, then the best team in the country, to avoid relegation. Sir Alex Ferguson’s team had already secured the title and, the following weekend, played Chelsea in the FA Cup final. So you can probably guess what happened next. Ferguson held back some of his big-hitters for Wembley and Carlos Tevez’s goal meant West Ham winning 1-0 at Old Trafford to send Sheffield United down instead.

Neil Warnock, then Sheffield United’s manager, never forgave Ferguson for his team selection. “I was disappointed. You would have hoped and thought that, in the last game of the season, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nemanja Vidic and probably two or three more, might have played,” he said. “I think Sir Alex sold me a dummy in midweek when he said he would field a strong team. Maybe the FA Cup final is more important to him.”

The previous weekend, Liverpool had a game at relegation-threatened Fulham. Yet Rafael Benitez, the Liverpool manager, was also preparing for a Champions League final against Milan and rested players for the trip to Craven Cottage. Fulham won 1-0 and stayed up.

“At least I knew the players that (Manchester United) were playing,” Warnock added. “I didn’t even know two of those that played for Liverpool at Fulham… but when you are a foreign manager like Rafa Benitez, you probably don’t give two hoots about what Sheffield United think.”

The counter-argument from Ferguson was that he should be allowed to pick whoever he wanted without being blamed, in a 38-game season, for another team’s relegation. And that, in short, is the bottom line here, especially when every club is required to submit a 25-man squad at the start of the season.

Palace did the same in their goal-less draw against West Ham last month (Nuno Esperito Santo’s side just weren’t able to take advantage) and it could conceivably happen against Everton on Sunday, too. But the point remains: who can blame Palace for prioritising their European games at this stage of the season and the possibility of a historic trophy?

As for the idea that the Premier League should take action against the relevant clubs, that is largely mooted because it has happened in the past. Wolves were given a suspended £25,000 fine for making 10 changes in a 3-0 defeat at Manchester United in 2009. Blackpool, then a Premier League club, had to pay £25,000 for doing the same in a 3-2 loss against Villa the following year. Both clubs reacted angrily to the sanctions and Blackpool’s manager, Ian Holloway, threatened to resign in protest.

Since then, however, the rules have been changed to allow teams to make extensive changes. And, if you want the evidence why, what happened at Chelsea is a good place to start.

Vitor Pereira, manager of Nottingham Forest, made eight changes to his line-up. He, too, was prioritising the Europa League semi-final at Villa Park on Thursday. Forest hold a 1-0 lead over Villa from the first leg and, when the teams were announced from Stamford Bridge, there must have been supporters of West Ham and Spurs who were delighted to see Pereira gamble that way.

Yet Forest were 2-0 ahead inside the opening quarter of an hour and ran out 3-1 winners. They were quick to the ball, strong in the tackle and decisive in their passing — everything, in fact, that Villa had not been the previous day.

For that, it was easy to understand why so many Villa fans were leading the outrage, particularly as they have to pay some of the highest ticket prices in English football. A lot of supporters walked out in disgust. Others made their feelings clear and it was strange, in the extreme, to see Emery looking so indifferent to his team’s shortcomings. Usually such an animated presence on the touchline, Emery watched like a statue while his players sleepwalked through the game.

The upside for Villa of losing to Spurs was that it put extra pressure on Forest, with their own relegation worries, not to rest players at Stamford Bridge. Villa already had an extra day’s recovery. That additional day, every sports scientist will confirm, can be crucial. So it could, in theory, have handed Emery’s team a considerable physical advantage for the second leg.

As it was, it didn’t change Pereira’s plans. The difference was that Forest’s back-up players gave everything they had at Chelsea, whereas Villa’s surrender against Spurs was completely out of keeping with how they have previously played this season.

It was some response from Pereira’s team, who are virtually safe from relegation now. Forest play Bournemouth on the last day of the season. And Bournemouth, of course, are the club chasing down Villa for Champions League qualification. There is some irony, in other words, that Emery & Co, having lost a lot of admirers over the weekend, might end up relying on Forest to go full-strength.

When Georginio Rutter buried his 95th-minute equaliser to silence the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium two weeks ago, it felt to many people like the knockout blow.

To have come that close to a first league win of 2026, to have worked so hard, to have ridden the emotional wave of Xavi Simons’ goal, only to throw it all away at the end, it could barely have been more painful. The Spurs players looked utterly devastated, collapsed on the ground, struggling to get back onto their feet. The whole stadium felt as if someone had pressed the mute button.

But while most fans sank into a very understandable fatalism, there was one man who refused. And that was Roberto De Zerbi. This was only his second game in charge of Spurs, but he already knew what Spurs needed if they were to have any chance of staying in the Premier League. He knew he had to get Spurs back off the mat.

So De Zerbi walked into his post-match press conference and immediately talked up his broken players. “This team is able to win five games in a row”, he said about a team that had not won a league game since December, had not won two in a row since August, had not won three in a row since February 2025, had not won four in a row since October 2023 and had not won five in a row since December 2018.

“Now it is difficult to hear my words,” he admitted, “but if you watch the players, if you analyse the level of the players, I think we can win five games in a row.”

It felt vaguely fantastical at the time, but the thinking was clear. Someone at Tottenham Hotspur had to be ambitious, had to be positive, had to talk up the players and the club. And who better to do it than their new head coach?

Ever since De Zerbi arrived just over one month ago, he has profoundly grasped the psychological aspect of his job. He knows that he has to be the one who sets the tone for the dressing room, for the football club, and for the whole fanbase. No one else is going to do that for him. And so it carried real weight when De Zerbi insisted that anyone who showed up to training on Monday without a smile would be sent home, and that he had “no time to see negative people”, whether players or coaches. “I don’t like people who cry, who think in a negative way.”

Two weeks on and De Zerbi’s Spurs have two wins from their last two with three games left. They have responded to the Brighton game with two consecutive away wins at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa. Sunday night was their best league performance since the early months of Ange Postecoglou’s time at the club. Given the dizzyingly high stakes, and Spurs’ injury crisis, it may be even more valuable than that.

What especially stood out on Sunday was the total conviction and confidence of the Tottenham players. Not since Postecoglou have they gone into a game looking like they had a religious belief in what the manager has asked them to do. Given that De Zerbi only took his first training session on 3 April, that is testament to the buy-in he has already generated from the group.

Everything that De Zerbi has said and done since his arrival has shown that he knows that Tottenham’s fundamental problem is psychological, which means that the solution must be psychological too. How else to diagnose the collapse of a big team into the relegation zone?

After months of negativity, De Zerbi has talked up his players at every opportunity. After his first game, De Zerbi spoke about the players needing him to be a “brother or father” rather than a coach. What he needed to do, more than anything else, was to get inside the players’ heads. Even if clearing out that mental block was an act of Herculean plumbing.

Last week, for example, De Zerbi detailed his motivational work with Randal Kolo Muani, a player who had not always looked fully motivated, and who many fans had given up on. But that work was justified by Kolo Muani’s far-improved performance on Sunday. It was his best for the club. He was a constant nuisance to opponents, winning 50-50s all over the pitch. Suddenly, good players are playing at their level again. Suddenly, Spurs, for the first time in a long time, look like a team.

That, more than a complicated playing style, has been the essence of De Zerbi’s work so far. Spurs pressed Villa brilliantly on Sunday, their best performance without the ball for years. But the point is that De Zerbi is giving his players clear, simple instructions — and that the players believe that those instructions are the gospel truth. Just look at Conor Gallagher’s post-match interview on Sunday night, when he spoke about how De Zerbi makes the players feel, and how much they trust him. The fact that he continued to believe in them and talk them up even when things looked lost will mean the world to the players

There was a strange feeling watching the scenes at the final whistle on Sunday. This season at Spurs has been dominated by discord and rancour, by players, managers and fans being at each other’s throats. Far too many games have ended in toxicity. The fans and players were talked down far too often, when in fact what they needed was a shared enterprise, a shared belief. This club only works when everyone pulls together. On Sunday night, you could sense the first glimmer of unity Spurs have experienced since Bilbao almost one year ago.

You could even sense the first glimmer of momentum, or at least positive momentum, after these two away wins in a row. Of course, Tottenham are still in a perilous position, a position that should still keep people awake at night. If West Ham get a result against Arsenal on Sunday, then Spurs will be back in the relegation zone with all the pressure returned to them.

The challenge for De Zerbi will be to maintain that new psychological dynamic he has found. It has released Spurs players to be themselves again, to perform as they used to, to make Tottenham look like Tottenham again.

He has already got into the players’ heads, cleaned out the mental block and got them playing again. Now they have to go and do it again against Leeds.

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Hello! The Premier League isn’t good at keeping its hair on. And it’s found something new to fight about.

Coming up:

👀 EPL hair-pulling dispute

🧱 Wrexham hit the wall

🗣️ Cracking manager rant

🙏 New hope for Tottenham

Pulling power: Why was Ballard’s tug on Arokodare’s hair a red-card offence?

Tolu Arokodare, the Wolverhampton Wanderers striker, is going to develop a complex at this rate. Twice this season, he’s been the victim of red-card offences — as a result of opponents pulling his hair.

Arokodare has long dreadlocks, meaning he’s more susceptible to having his hair pulled than many others (more susceptible than me, it’s fair to say) but, unintentionally, he’s at the forefront of a hot debate in the Premier League. Should hair-pulling constitute violent conduct? And why, from nowhere, has it become a thing in 2025-26?

Recently, it’s been causing friction in both the men’s and the women’s games. Earlier this month, Chelsea Women’s head coach Sonia Bompastor took umbrage with Arsenal’s Katie McCabe tugging the locks of Alyssa Thompson during a Champions League tie. On that occasion, VAR didn’t want to know. But while pulling hair would seem more likely in women’s football, the Premier League is where it’s becoming a real bone of contention.

Sunderland’s Dan Ballard was sent off on Saturday for that crime against Arokodare, dismissed in the 24th minute of a 1-1 draw with Wolves at Molineux. In January, Everton’s Michael Keane incurred a red card for exactly the same transgression against exactly the same player, and failed with an appeal against his dismissal. Likewise, Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez had a red card upheld after pulling the hair of Leeds United’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin at Old Trafford three weeks ago.

Michael Carrick, United’s caretaker head coach, called Martinez’s punishment “one of the worst” decisions he’d seen — and football is struggling to accept that hair-pulling ought to be judged as violent conduct (and therefore subject to a three-game ban), particularly if it’s not flagrantly intentional. Having barely been a point of discussion before, we’re experiencing something of an epidemic this year.

Phil Buckingham outlined the relevant laws of the game for us and while hair-pulling isn’t specifically referenced within them, referees and VAR reviews are taking a dim view of it. The dial was turned up after Tottenham Hotspur’s Cristian Romero yanked back Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella by his sizeable mane in 2022, a foul that went unpunished at the time but one which that game’s VAR Mike Dean later admitted should have been reviewed.

Howard Webb, the man in charge of England’s match officials, reckons hair-pulling “crosses the line”. “There’s absolutely no reason to do that,” he has said. “People don’t want to see it happening.” And in principle, he’s right. But in the heat of battle, when defenders and forwards are scuffling for possession and high balls, it’s a contentious grey area and an offence which the sport’s lawmakers might soon have to specifically define. As Sunderland’s head coach Regis Le Bris said on Saturday: “The execution of the rule is very hard to digest” — meaning nobody quite knows where they stand.

News round-up

Inter Miami are still waiting for that elusive first win at their new stadium. The MLS champions raced into a three-goal lead after 33 minutes against Orlando City on Saturday, but then collapsed to a 4-3 defeat. At least Lionel Messi had time to attend the Miami Grand Prix (above) yesterday.

Vancouver Whitecaps, meanwhile, ended a turbulent week with a 1-1 draw at LA Galaxy. Joshua Kloke summed up the mood with the threat to the MLS franchise’s future intensifying.

Inter took the Serie A title last night, having been champions-elect for weeks. Barcelona need a point to wrap up La Liga’s crown, which they could do during El Clasico at home against Real Madrid next Sunday. Convenient timing.

Former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, 84, was taken to hospital before the club’s match with Liverpool yesterday. It wasn’t a medical emergency, however, and he has since been discharged.

Newcastle United are backing head coach Eddie Howe. He’ll remain in charge next season, despite the club drifting to 13th place in the Premier League.

This generated plenty of headlines on Friday: Brighton coach Fabian Hurzeler revealing that he had called on the services of an MMA fighter to help his team defend set pieces. Certain boxes can resemble a royal rumble, to be fair.

Big steps: Tottenham’s crucial win in relegation scrap, Arsenal six points clear

Hope springs eternal for Tottenham Hotspur, courtesy of Aston Villa throwing themselves to the wolves. West Ham United must have facepalmed when they saw Unai Emery weakening his line-up with seven changes for yesterday’s game in Birmingham — and double-facepalmed when they saw the state of Villa’s performance.

Emery is, it seems, prioritising Villa’s Europa League semi-final against Nottingham Forest, the second leg of which takes place this Thursday. Satisfaction and silverware lie that way, but the natives at Villa Park are extremely restless, and Spurs’ 2-1 win there last night could have a huge bearing on the Premier League’s relegation battle. Tottenham are now out of the bottom three amid a desperate fight to make the best of their underwhelming resources.

Also in the top flight over the weekend:

Arsenal’s simple 3-0 rout of Fulham on Saturday was a serious step towards the title. Bukayo Saka is back, and there’s huge pressure on Manchester City, who lie six points adrift with two games in hand (the first of them away to Everton tonight). Art de Roché is asking whether it’s better to chase or be chased in these circumstances. I’d take Arsenal’s position all day long.

Manchester United have qualified for the Champions League, which is mission accomplished for Michael Carrick. They got there yesterday by beating visitors Liverpool who, frankly, will be slightly fortunate to make Europe’s top competition themselves. Coach Arne Slot moaned about VAR but his problems lie much closer to home.

In a former life, I spent my time covering Leeds United home and away. I went back to Elland Road on Friday to see the club all but sew up Premier League survival. Manager Daniel Farke deserves his flowers.

“Rob Edwards, you’re a w****r” coming from Wolves’ home support suggests to me that he’s in a bit of trouble there after relegation. In the face of such mutinous fan behaviour, will the Molineux board stick or twist?

Wrexham dream dies: Welsh club miss out on play-offs as Ipswich return to Premier League

Finally, we’ve discovered Wrexham’s ceiling (for now, at least). They fell short of the Championship play-offs on Saturday, drawing 2-2 with Middlesbrough at home and finishing seventh, and they’ve now got a long summer in which to rue a couple of big chances that went begging for them late on.

Ipswich Town, however, made good their return to the Premier League, and there were heartwarming scenes at Sheffield Wednesday, where misery had abounded from almost the first kick of the season to the last.

Wednesday, after multiple points deductions, had no other target to aim for than avoiding the humiliation of a negative final tally — and they got to zero by beating West Bromwich Albion 2-1. More than that, it was announced before kick-off that they’d secured new ownership. And better still, that the EFL has waived a further 15-point penalty which might have been imposed on them in League One next term.

Before the West Brom game, the club used their scoreboard to count down the potential deduction and reveal they had dodged it completely. They wouldn’t ever want to experience a repeat of the past 12 months — but equally, they won’t forget this campaign in a hurry.

Watford sacked head coach Ed Still after finishing 16th in the 24-team Championship. That will make it 23 first-team bosses since 2014 at Vicarage Road, maintaining Watford’s status as the most trigger-happy club going.

Around TAFC

Adam Leventhal has put together a fantastic podcast on the backdrop of war to the 2026 World Cup. It’s free to download and it gets to the heart of various geopolitical issues. You can find it here.

George Wickens amassed four assists for Lincoln City this season. That might not sound like many — except Wickens is a goalkeeper, and his tally equalled an English record. He analysed his game with Eduardo Tansley.

Christian Pulisic has now gone 16 games straight without scoring for Milan. He isn’t coming up with much in the way of assists either. The USMNT will have to count on him finding form from nowhere, just as he did at the World Cup in 2022.

Switzerland’s FC Thun have been on the go for 128 years. At last, they have a trophy to their name after winning the country’s top flight. Not bad for a town with a population of 45,000.

America’s United Soccer League (USL) is getting closer to thrashing out a new collective bargaining agreement with its players. That situation has been a mess and it led to threats of strike action.

Most clicked in Friday’s TAFC: the tendency of Millwall fans to call a spade a spade.

Catch a match

Selected games (times ET/UK)

Premier League: Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest, 10am/3pm; Everton vs Manchester City, 3pm/8pm — both USA Network/Sky Sports.

Scottish Premiership: Heart of Midlothian vs Rangers, 12.30pm/5.30pm — CBS, Fubo/Sky Sports.

La Liga: Sevilla vs Real Sociedad, 3pm/8pm — ESPN, Fubo/Premier Sports.

Serie A: Roma vs Fiorentina, 2.45pm/7.45pm — Paramount+, Fubo, DAZN/DAZN.

And finally…

The weekend’s telling-it-like-it-is award goes to Richie Wellens, the boss of League One side Leyton Orient.

It was Joao Palhinha on the edge of the Tottenham Hotspur box flying in to block Ross Barkley, who looked set to shoot. His celebration afterwards, kneeling and pumping his arms, was met with the travelling support chanting his name.

It was Rodrigo Bentancur floating around the middle of the park, faultless when he had possession and directing traffic and tempo without it.

It was Conor Gallagher, who almost signed for Aston Villa in January, delivering his first decisive moment in a Spurs shirt at Villa Park, firing low and controlled into the bottom corner from the edge of the area to open the scoring.

Much of the discussion leading into Tottenham’s 2-1 win at Villa Park was centred on how they could cope without Xavi Simons, who De Zerbi described as one of their “best” and “most important players” since coming into the starting line-up for the 2-2 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion.

Simons — like James Maddison, who was again named in the matchday squad at Villa but has not played a competitive match for more than a year, and Dejan Kulusevski, who is still without a return date having been injured since last May — is set for a long spell on the sidelines as he recovers from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.

Without the creative talents of their injured No 10s, Tottenham needed to be dogged and determined, and deliver just enough quality to win a Premier League game. And in that, it was Roberto De Zerbi’s midfielders who led by example.

Before Sunday, Tottenham had not won back-to-back league games since beating Burnley and Manchester City in their first two games of the season. Perhaps that 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium was the last time Tottenham played this well in the league. Fittingly, it was the ‘Bentinha’ pivot, which swarmed Nico Gonzalez, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki and prevented Pep Guardiola’s side from building from the back, which inspired that win, too.

Justifiably, the Bentancur-Palhinha pairing became one that many Spurs fans were content to see the back of. Before suffering a hamstring injury in January, the ‘Bentinha’ label was synonymous with the elements of Thomas Frank’s football Spurs fans hated: slow, sideways, unimaginative. Particularly at home, where Tottenham have been under par for successive seasons, Bentancur and Palhinha were tasked with hurting the opposition with the ball, but they lacked the invention or tactical direction to progress through the middle of the pitch.

At Villa Park, their roles appeared to maximise their strengths and minimise their weaknesses, with Palhinha dropping back into the defensive line, allowing Pedro Porro, a more gifted technician, to push ahead into the right half-space, while Bentancur relieved pressure on team-mates, providing an outlet in possession.

In Manchester, it was Pape Matar Sarr who buzzed around ahead of them, crunching into every tackle, driving the press and hunting down every loose ball. In Birmingham, Gallagher was the workhorse No 10.

Even when he appeared to be running on fumes, Gallagher drove the team forward with a maniacal press. He led the team in defensive contributions, registering one interception and one block, three tackles and a remarkable six recoveries in midfield.

“When Gallagher plays like this, we play with 12 players because you can find him as a striker, as a midfielder, as a full-back — everywhere on the pitch you can find him,” De Zerbi said in his post-match press conference. “Great player, great passion, great qualities.”

It’s the type of performance Tottenham have been waiting for from the England international since the club spent £35million ($47.6m) on him in January. De Zerbi has consistently namechecked Gallagher in his press conferences, hoping to see the midfield dynamo who impressed him as a Chelsea player. And his faith in his qualities, in and out of possession, was repaid in a man-of-the-match performance.

While it is true that Villa may have had their eyes on the Europa League semi-final second-leg on Thursday, with Unai Emery resting seven players in a manner reminiscent of Ange Postecoglou’s rotation leading to Tottenham’s triumph in Bilbao, Spurs, led by their dominant midfield, were comfortable and convincing in a manner they have rarely been since the Australian’s first season in charge in north London.

“I’m really pleased with the performance with the ball, without the ball,” said De Zerbi. “Without the ball, we showed great courage; with the ball, great qualities. I’m happy with this type of performance, more than three points. OK, we are one point more than West Ham. But the most important thing tonight is to play a great game, to believe more and more in ourselves, to believe in our qualities.”

Ahead of the game, De Zerbi said it would not be a miracle if they beat Villa. But perhaps the miracle is helping a team bereft of confidence, symbolised by a midfield that lacked the vigour to offset an absence of magic, believe in themselves again.

Like Postecoglou, who was sniggered at for his second-season trophy prophecy until it came true, De Zerbi’s suggestion that Tottenham could win all five of their matches this season after the deflating Brighton draw seemed ludicrous.

Now, the fans and the players believe it. And if there are still some doubters, at least they believe he believes it — which is just as important.