LONDON — Tottenham Hotspur have spent more than £300 million rebuilding their squad, changed the shape of their attack and backed Roberto De Zerbi with some of the Premier League’s most expensive new talent.
Four league games into the new season, they are still waiting for their first Premier League goal — and their first Premier League win.
Yet De Zerbi remains convinced the numbers are about to change.
The Spurs manager insisted his team will begin winning matches and scoring regularly once their new-look squad finally develops the connections he wants, despite Tuesday’s 3-1 League Cup defeat at Liverpool extending their winless run in all competitions to four matches.
For Tottenham supporters, however, the difficult part is the wait.
Spurs currently have two points from four Premier League matches, with zero goals scored and five conceded. They opened with a 3-0 defeat at Brentford, lost 2-0 at home to Newcastle, then drew 0-0 against Nottingham Forest and Everton.
That makes this the first time in Tottenham’s history that the club has failed to score in its opening four league matches of a season, according to Reuters and Guardian reporting.
And that is why De Zerbi’s optimism is becoming one of the most important storylines of Tottenham’s season.
Liverpool finally saw Spurs score — just not enough
Tuesday’s trip to Anfield at least broke one attacking drought.
Liverpool won 3-1 through goals from Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai, while Conor Gallagher scored Tottenham’s only goal. Spurs had chances to make the match closer, with Lucas Bergvall and Mohammed Kudus among those unable to convert promising opportunities.
The goal did not rescue Tottenham from an early League Cup exit.
But after four consecutive Premier League blanks, merely seeing the ball reach the net offered De Zerbi something to build on.
He acknowledged after the game that poor results were hurting the group emotionally, saying Spurs were frustrated and disappointed but were still only in the early phase of what he described as a new project.
More importantly, De Zerbi said he does not believe attitude is the main problem.
Against Liverpool, he felt his players demonstrated the mentality and effort required.
His argument is that the missing piece is cohesion.
Once that arrives, he believes the goals and victories will follow.
The £300 million number makes patience harder
Tottenham’s poor start would attract attention under any circumstances.
But expectations changed dramatically during the summer.
Reuters reported that Spurs spent more than £300 million rebuilding De Zerbi’s squad, bringing in players including Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Sávio, Omar Marmoush and Mykhailo Mudryk, along with other additions across the team.
Sávio alone arrived from Manchester City for a reported £75 million.
Marmoush joined from City on a season-long loan with a mandatory future purchase clause reportedly worth £50 million plus potential add-ons.
Earlier Reuters reporting put Tottenham’s summer commitment at roughly £322 million at one stage of the window.
That level of investment naturally changes what supporters expect.
Tottenham are no longer being asked to judge a manager working with essentially the same group that struggled last year.
This is a substantially reconstructed squad.
And four Premier League games into that rebuild, it has yet to score.
De Zerbi says the rebuild started later than it looks
The manager’s explanation is that simply looking at the calendar exaggerates how long this group has actually been working together.
After the Everton draw, De Zerbi pointed to disruption from the 2026 World Cup, injuries during Tottenham’s preseason trip to Australia and New Zealand, and the late arrival of several summer signings.
He said players including Micky van de Ven, Dominic Solanke and Mateus Fernandes had suffered injury problems, while Sávio and Marmoush arrived late enough that De Zerbi had only recently been able to train with something close to his full squad.
That matters particularly for a coach whose football depends heavily on structured build-up, positioning and coordinated movements.
De Zerbi’s teams traditionally try to attract opponents forward with possession before exploiting the spaces that pressure creates.
That system requires players to understand not only where they should be but where teammates will move next.
A squad containing numerous new starters may therefore need time before those patterns become automatic.
The question is how much time Tottenham can afford.
The numbers suggest the final third is the biggest problem
Against Everton, Tottenham had 14 attempts, but De Zerbi said his team did not create enough genuine danger from the control it enjoyed.
He specifically pointed to decision-making around the penalty area: when to shoot, when to make the final pass and how to remain calm when attacks reach their most important moment.
The same issue appeared in the previous 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest.
Tottenham had 12 attempts but failed to test Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels, while De Zerbi again highlighted poor choices in the final third.
That distinction helps explain his confidence.
Tottenham are not necessarily spending entire matches pinned inside their own half.
They are reaching attacking positions.
They simply are not converting those situations into enough high-quality shots or goals.
De Zerbi’s belief is that this can be coached.
Whether the improvement arrives quickly enough is another matter.
There is now a psychological problem too
De Zerbi has admitted that repeated failure to score is beginning to affect confidence.
After the Everton draw, he described a possible “mental block”, arguing that players who repeatedly fail to finish attacks can begin making increasingly anxious decisions.
That can become self-reinforcing.
A forward desperate to end the drought shoots when a teammate is better positioned.
Another player takes an extra touch because he is afraid of missing.
A midfielder chooses the safe pass rather than attempting the decisive one.
The longer zero remains beside Tottenham’s Premier League goals tally, the more every attack carries additional pressure.
De Zerbi’s task is therefore increasingly psychological as well as tactical.
Tottenham’s striker situation makes the drought stranger
There is another unusual element to the problem.
Richarlison remains unavailable to De Zerbi despite Tottenham’s lack of Premier League goals.
The Brazilian was omitted from the club’s league squad after a breakdown over his future. De Zerbi said he had repeatedly tried to convince Richarlison to remain at Tottenham but that the forward did not want to stay, even though he ultimately failed to secure a late transfer.
The manager has said the situation has not changed.
That leaves Spurs relying on players including Solanke, Marmoush, Mathys Tel, Sávio and Kudus to solve the scoring problem.
Solanke has only recently returned to the starting lineup after injury.
Sávio and Marmoush are still adapting.
Mudryk, another deadline-day addition, suffered an ankle injury shortly after making his comeback from a lengthy suspension and is expected to remain sidelined until after the international break.
The depth exists on paper.
The functioning attack does not — yet.
Spurs are rebuilding after two extraordinary 17th-place seasons
The wider context makes the situation even more unusual.
Tottenham finished 17th last season, only two points above the relegation zone. Reuters notes it was a second successive 17th-place finish.
De Zerbi did not oversee the entire campaign.
He was appointed on March 31, 2026, with seven league matches remaining, after Tottenham had cycled through managers during another difficult season. His immediate assignment was survival.
He achieved that.
The summer was supposed to begin the next stage: moving Tottenham away from relegation battles and toward the style and level the club believes its stadium, revenue and investment should support.
That is why the opening month has been so jarring.
Spurs have spent like a club trying to return toward the top.
They are starting the season like one still trying to escape the bottom.
But there are reasons De Zerbi has been given such strong backing
Tottenham knew what style of manager they were hiring.
De Zerbi led Brighton to the club’s highest-ever Premier League finish and first European qualification, becoming known for adventurous possession football and aggressive attacking principles.
He later took Marseille to second place in Ligue 1 in 2024-25 before joining Tottenham.
Spurs described him upon appointment as their preferred long-term coach and praised his creative, forward-thinking approach.
That makes an immediate abandonment of the project after four league matches unlikely.
But the next stage needs evidence of progress.
Goals would be a useful start.
And Aston Villa could be an unexpected opportunity
Tottenham’s next Premier League match is at home against Aston Villa on Saturday, September 19.
Normally that would look like a daunting fixture.
Villa finished fourth last season and won the Europa League.
But Unai Emery’s side are experiencing serious early-season problems of their own.
Villa have also failed to win any of their opening four Premier League games, losing to Brighton, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest while drawing at Hull. Their only league goal so far came in the 2-1 defeat against Forest.
So Saturday is not simply Tottenham against one of last season’s top four.
It is two ambitious teams trying to stop poor starts from becoming much bigger stories.
For Spurs, the objective could hardly be clearer.
Score.
Then win.
De Zerbi’s biggest bet is that performance will eventually beat panic
There is a reasonable football argument behind the manager’s confidence.
His team is new.
Several important players have had interrupted preparations.
Tottenham are still producing spells of controlled possession.
And against Liverpool they finally scored.
But there is also a reality that £300 million cannot avoid.
Premier League seasons do not wait for expensive squads to become comfortable.
Four matches have already gone.
Tottenham have taken two points.
They have scored zero league goals.
They sit 17th — the same position in which they ended last season.
De Zerbi believes the breakthrough will come when his players finally “click.”
If he is right, Tottenham possess enough attacking talent for the transformation to be dramatic.
If he is wrong, the summer’s enormous spending will only make every goalless weekend harder to explain.
The encouraging part for Spurs is that a season cannot be decided after four matches.
The uncomfortable part is that their fifth is already coming.
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