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While we were all watching the playoffs for the last World Cup spots, Tottenham stole some headlines for itself when Coach Igor Tudor left the team by mutual consent, which is what teams sometimes say in this situation. The Croatian’s 44-day tenure in North London ranks among one of the most disastrous short-term coaching spells in recent memory and leaves Spurs in a genuine relegation battle.
After the press toyed with the idea of appointing Ben Davies as a player-manager, Spurs’ new coach is Roberto De Zerbi, whom English fans remember as having surpassed expectations during his two seasons coaching Brighton & Hove, when he took the Seagulls to European competition for the first time. The Italian is available after Marseille sacked him for flaming out in the Champions League and Ligue 1.
Arsenal fans all think the same about Roberto De Zerbi to Tottenham
What does this have to do with Arsenal? Spurs fans will find it encouraging that their bitter rivals are not high-fiving each other over this appointment. The main sentiment on the fans’ Reddit discussion thread is that Spurs will only need a couple of wins to save themselves anyway, and that whether De Zerbi is the coach to get them doesn’t much matter to the Gunners at this point.
The schedule is giving Spurs chances to grab the points they need. Only one of their remaining seven games is against a top-seven team: the May 2 trip to Aston Villa. Sandwiched around that are relegation six-pointers against Wolves and Leeds, and Leeds has to play against West Ham as well.
Do Arsenal even want Spurs to be relegated? True, many Gunners fans would relish the schadenfreude, but remember how the juice largely went out of Leeds’ rivalries with Chelsea and Manchester United during the Yorkshire club’s long absence from the English top flight.
De Zerbi has at least started out the right way, vowing to stay with Spurs whatever this season’s results are and disavowing his previous comments praising Mason Greenwood, whom he coached at Marseille. De Zerbi’s Brighton teams lined up in an attacking 4-2-3-1, and Spurs should have the talent to carry that out.
He may have regrets about this even if he saves Spurs, with the Italy job coming open just today and him not being able to put his name in. The greatest concerns in North London are whether De Zerbi can scavenge enough points in the next seven matches to keep Tottenham up.