BBC

We asked for your thoughts after Sunday's Premier League game between Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur.

Here are some of your comments:

Sunderland fans

Adrian: Three points off fifth and a Champions League slot. Who'd have predicted that this time last year?

Robert: Another Superb performance by this young Sunderland side. Regis le Bris is, in my opinion, a good candidate for manager/head coach of the season. He has built a virtually new team in his debut Premier League campaign. He has developed a wonderful team spirit and togetherness that is excellent. Magnificent results have come thick and fast. I could not be happier. Ha'way the lads. And I'm feeling "Glad All Over" as it's the song the Crystal Palace fans sing when they score a goal and win.

Stephen: More proof that we need an "out-and-out" goalscorer. We created many more chances than Spurs yet our only goal came from a deflection.

Graham: Not the best this season but, as always, a team performance and Granit Xhaka pulling the strings - as usual.

Tottenham fans

Peter: A much better performance. Chances created but lack of quality upfront meant they weren't taken. I would like to have seen more urgency towards the end. You don't play your way out of the bottom three. As for the goal, one of those conceded by team at the bottom. We deserved a point, but that's not how football works. Still hope, three wins a minimum. COYS.

Colin: Listless. Boring. Pathetic. Big mistake not playing Xavi Simons until 95th minute. So many under performing players. Play the under-21s' side next week.

Roger: In the days when we had Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son consistently contributing over 30 goals a season we could afford to concede a few goals and still pick up the points. Unfortunately, they have been replace by very expensive flops when it comes to scoring. Likewise in midfield we have never come close to replacing the quality of Christian Eriksen, Dele Ali and Mousa Dembele. That is why we are where we are and unfortunately there are no quick fixes. Against Sunderland confirmed that hard work and effort alone will not be enough, we are going to have to rely on a lot of good luck if we are to avoid relegation.

The sight of new Tottenham Hotspur head coach Roberto de Zerbi watching in anguish as captain Cristian Romero walked past him in tears may yet become the lasting image of a season slowly sliding towards the Championship.

De Zerbi's hopes of a fast start after succeeding Igor Tudor, the madcap experiment of the Croat's appointment lasting only 44 days, ended brutally as Spurs failed to show any significant response to the Italian's arrival.

Amid another flatlining display, the tearful departure of De Zerbi's leader on the field with Spurs 1-0 down with 25 minutes left and on the way to deserved defeat at Sunderland was yet another harrowing chapter in this sorry tale of the fall of a giant club.

The question of whether Spurs are too good to go down was consigned to the dustbin long ago. A team without a win in 14 Premier League games stretching back to 28 December at Crystal Palace answers that.

A more pertinent question now is - are Spurs too bad to stay up?

On the grim evidence that unfolded in the Wearside sunshine, it looks like they are.

Romero appeared to have a knee injury, although De Zerbi said "we have to see in the next few days", adding: "I hope that it is not too important a problem. He's a crucial player for us. He's a good guy and a good player with a big personality. We need him to finish the season."

Whatever the prognosis, former England goalkeeper Ben Foster questioned whether Romero's downcast manner as he left the pitch sent the right message to a Spurs team already a goal down after Nordi Mukiele's shot deflected past keeper Antonin Kinsky off Micky van de Ven on the hour.

It was a moment of misfortune, the sort that is often the fate of a team, and indeed a club, in crisis.

"Romero's probably the one player who has got a bit of character in that team, a bit of grit and determination," said Foster, a pundit on Sunday's Match of the Day. "If I was one of his team-mates there, I want him to be walking off the pitch grabbing everybody, getting everybody firing.

"They've still got 25 minutes there until full-time. But the tears, I feel, send the wrong message. As a captain you shouldn't be doing that."

The Telegraph's Luke Edwards believes Roberto de Zerbi will have to "oversee some turnaround" to keep Tottenham in the Premier League this season, adding that there are "huge problems" for the club to sort out.

Tottenham failed to end their run of 14 Premier League games without a win against Sunderland on Sunday afternoon, continuing their worst run in the league for 81 years and leaving themselves stuck in the bottom three.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily, Edwards said: "There is always hope because Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Leeds United haven't been truly convincing themselves all season. However, all of those clubs have a bit more upward momentum than Tottenham at the moment.

"It is some turnaround that Roberto de Zerbi has got to oversee. When he went to Brighton, he actually lost his first five games in charge. So as good a job as he did there, it actually took a while for him to get his ideas across.

"I was in his post-match press conference and I listened to him say: 'I can't be a coach, I've got to be a father and a brother - I've got to put my arm around these players' - but I'm not sure that is going to be enough.

"They can't keep clean sheets, they can't score goals, they are too easy to play through midfield - that is a pretty poisonous mix. There are huge problems.

"De Zerbi will be on a huge bonus to keep the club in the Premier League - and he will earn every single penny of it if he manages to do it from here.

"Having watched them, there is a stench of relegation around the club. I think they are doomed."

Spurs are in deep. Seriously deep. For all of the effort they made very, very few real chances in this game.

Now they are officially in the relegation zone, people are taking it seriously. It's been serious for much longer than that. It's been sitting staring at you.

We've seen teams in the past start to fall and they have faltered, they have started to lack belief. There was no lack of effort from the Spurs players at Sunderland, but was there a desperation about the desire? I'm not sure there was.

It's not like they didn't try today, but was that the desperation level that they need? I'm afraid not. Nothing feels easy. Nothing feels certain. I don't know where the points are coming from.

Match of the Day pundit Pat Nevin looks at how Tottenham's new head coach Roberto de Zerbi set up his side against Sunderland, and the issues that cost Spurs in their 1-0 defeat at the Stadium of Light.

Match Report: Premier League - Sunderland 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur

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The sight of new Tottenham Hotspur head coach Roberto de Zerbi watching in anguish as captain Cristian Romero walked past him in tears may yet become the lasting image of a season slowly sliding towards the Championship.

De Zerbi's hopes of a fast start after succeeding Igor Tudor, the madcap experiment of the Croatian's appointment lasting only 44 days, ended brutally as Spurs failed to show any significant response to the Italian's arrival.

Amid another flatlining display, the tearful departure of De Zerbi's leader on the field with Spurs 1-0 down with 25 minutes left and on the way to deserved defeat at Sunderland was yet another harrowing chapter in this sorry tale of the fall of a giant club.

The question of whether Spurs are too good to go down was consigned to the dustbin long ago. A team without a win in 14 Premier League games stretching back to 28 December at Crystal Palace answers that.

A more pertinent question now is - are Spurs too bad to stay up?

On the grim evidence that unfolded in the Wearside sunshine, it looks like they are.

De Zerbi's reputation has been forged as a visionary coach at Brighton and Marseille, but he now needs to act as a psychologist as much as training ground strategist to coax something from this subsiding Spurs team.

"My job now is not to coach a style, with or without the ball, but try to give the players what they need in terms of mentality," he said.

"My style is to trust the confidence of the players. During the week, they play better because they are clean in their heads, but in the game it is different. My work must be to get them to show what they are doing during the week in a game."

De Zerbi agreed the stress and fear of relegation could be the factor consuming the Spurs squad – but he has no time to lose getting his message across. In football terms, this is now a critical emergency for Spurs.

He must also wait to see how long he is without Romero, whose downcast departure wiping away tears was yet another twist in this harrowing season.

Romero appeared to have a knee injury, although De Zerbi said "we have to see in the next few days", adding: "I hope that it is not too important a problem. He's a crucial player for us. He's a good guy and a good player with a big personality. We need him to finish the season."

Whatever the prognosis, former England goalkeeper Ben Foster questioned whether Romero's downcast manner as he left the pitch sent the right message to a Spurs team already a goal down after Nordi Mukiele's shot deflected past keeper Antonin Kinsky off Micky van de Ven on the hour.

It was a moment of misfortune, the sort that is often the fate of a team, and indeed a club, in crisis.

"Romero's probably the one player who has got a bit of character in that team, a bit of grit and determination," said Foster, a pundit on Sunday's Match of the Day. "If I was one of his team-mates there, I want him to be walking off the pitch grabbing everybody, getting everybody firing.

"They've still got 25 minutes there until full-time. But the tears, I feel, send the wrong message. As a captain you shouldn't be doing that."

In Romero's defence, his injury was caused by a reckless intervention from Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey, who pushed him into keeper Kinsky, who sustained a head wound but was able to carry on.

Troubles are already piling up around De Zerbi's feet like rubble and he has barely got his feet under the desk. And he will know it.

Spurs are a very poor team, shorn of confidence and self-belief, looking on course for the Championship. De Zerbi only has six more games to turn this predicament around.

Such is the extent of the rot that has set in at Spurs, this may not be enough.

The Europa League win under Ange Postecoglou – even his presence seems an age ago now - provided glory and long-awaited silverware for the first time since 2008, but it has been exposed as a flimsy fig leaf disguising fundamental deep-seated problems running through the club on and off the pitch.

No wonder television cameras panned in on concerned expressions on the faces of Spurs chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham and sporting director Johan Lange as they looked on from The Stadium Of Light's directors' box.

Venkatesham and Lange will struggle to survive if Spurs suffer the humiliation of relegation, especially as they must take responsibility for the left-field appointment of Tudor.

Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi says he needs to be a "big brother" and "father" figure to his players, after Tottenham's 1-0 defeat to Sunderland leaves his side in the bottom three of the Premier League.

MATCH REPORT: Premier League - Sunderland 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur

Roberto de Zerbi has no time to waste if he is to save Spurs from the ignominy of the drop, but he was unable to make the clouds of relegation hanging over this giant club lift on another dismal day.

Spurs now have to make up that two-point gap on West Ham United with only six games left, and he witnessed a display desperately lacking in inspiration on Wearside.

Sunderland were by far the more organised and threatening side, with Dominic Solanke wasting Spurs' best chance right on half-time when he was blocked at the near post.

De Zerbi was preparing to make changes when Sunderland went ahead with a goal that often sums up the fate of the struggling team, Nordi Mukiele's routine shot taking a huge deflection off Micky van de Ven to beat Antonin Kinsky.

Spurs were also unlucky to lose key defender and captain Cristian Romero following that clash with keeper Kinsky, the Argentine in tears as he went off.

De Zerbi would have been concerned at the lack of reaction from Spurs to going behind, a clear indicator of their lack of self-belief and confidence.

There is no escaping just how serious Spurs' predicament is – and they will have to produce much better than this in their next game at home to De Zerbi's old club Brighton.

Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris believes his side can secure a top half finish in the table come the end of the season, after Sunderland's 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur moved them to 10th in the Premier League.

MATCH REPORT: Premier League - Sunderland 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur