Tottenham are bottom of the Premier League after five league games, with two points, two goals scored and a 20th-place start that already looks alarming for a side built around the club's biggest spending spree in history. Roberto De Zerbi summed up the mood with one line to the independent, saying: "you can’t buy mentality". The football still has to answer for itself.
The numbers behind the slump
Five league games is enough to show a pattern. Tottenham have won none of them, scored only two and conceded eight. That leaves them with a record that looks closer to a survival scrap than a settled new project.
The form line, LDDLL, fits the same story. There has been no real sign of momentum, and the 445-minute drought only adds to the sense that the attack is not finding a stable shape.
Spurs' position is the awkward part for any argument about bedding in. Clubs can usually buy time early in a season, but Tottenham have put themselves under pressure quickly, and the table is already doing the talking.
The attack still looks unsettled
The Brentford game was the clearest warning sign because the front line kept shifting, with Mikey Moore, Richarlison and Mathys Tel used together. That kind of change can be explained once or twice, but it does not yet look like a settled plan.
De Zerbi has already begun two matches on the bench and been taken off at half-time in a third, which says plenty about how much he is still testing the balance of the side. The issue is not just selection for selection's sake, it is that the team have only two league goals to show for all the churn.
The spending spree will keep hanging over this start because it raises expectations, not lowers them. A record outlay should buy more clarity than this, and right now Tottenham still look short of it.
The next league match will only intensify the scrutiny if the attack stays this blunt, because five games have already been enough to make 20th place and two goals hard to ignore.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
