Tottenham left Stamford Bridge with the noise turning quickly to a late penalty claim, but Roberto De Zerbi was not interested in staying there. He pushed the conversation back to Sunday’s home match against Everton, called it Tottenham’s final, and said James Maddison cannot play more than 20 or 25 minutes.

Why De Zerbi wanted the focus elsewhere

"It's not my business now. My focus is to prepare the next game and to make points. Because Sunday is the final for Tottenham, not Bilbao against Man Utd," De Zerbi told football.london.

That is the line he kept returning to. He said, "The most important game is Sunday, because last season they played for the trophy, now we play for something more important than the trophy." He added that "the pride, the history of the club, the dignity are more important than the trophy."

That sounds stark, but Tottenham's league position gives it weight. They are 17th and only two points above the Premier League bottom three, so the talk around Everton is not just rhetoric. It is the level of urgency you would expect when the margin is that thin.

De Zerbi also made it clear he did not want the Stamford Bridge controversy draining energy. "Today we can speak about what you want, but we lose focus and we lose energy. My focus is to stay on the pitch," he said.

Maddison's minutes and the state of Tottenham's week

The other concrete detail from the press conference was James Maddison's availability. De Zerbi said, "James Maddison can't play more than 20 or 25."

That fits the broader picture of a player still being managed carefully. Maddison has made only two Premier League appearances this season and has played 46 Premier League minutes, so the coach's warning was more restriction than surprise.

The timing matters because Tottenham do not have much room for errors or for passengers. If Maddison is limited to a short spell, the rest of the side have to do the heavy lifting against Everton.

The penalty issue will hang around because that is what happens when a late corner creates a flashpoint. Micky van de Ven was dragged to the floor by Marc Cucurella from the corner, Chelsea scored through Enzo Fernández in the 18th minute and Andrey Santos added another in the 67th after Fernández's cushioned pass, and Richarlison pulled one back with 16 minutes left.

There is room for disagreement on the incident, but not much on where De Zerbi wanted the story to land. He treated the debate as a distraction and the Everton fixture as the real test. With Tottenham 17th, two points above the bottom three, and Maddison restricted to a brief cameo at best, that is the more convincing reading.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →