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Tottenham have failed to score in their opening four league games for the first time. Two decades have passed since they last drew blanks in four consecutive Premier League matches. While these are outliers, it will take time for Spurs to improve.
Their level of player turnover, from last season to this and from week to week, is a problem. Only four men who played at least half of the league minutes last season have featured in 2026-27. One is Richarlison, who has since been omitted from their Premier League squad. His 15 goal contributions in the league were at least twice as many as any other Tottenham player last season, but he will not be scoring or assisting any time soon.
Richarlison is also the fourth-longest-serving player. Ben Davies, Brandon Austin and Rodrigo Bentancur are ahead of him, and of those only Bentancur is likely to play regularly. Many current starters are relatively new recruits. The 11 players who began the goalless draw with Everton last Saturday had spent an average of 1.3 years with the club. Tottenham have averaged the joint-third-youngest starting XI this season too. They have many players without too much experience, either individually or as a unit.
Roberto De Zerbi has made 12 changes to his starting lineups in the league since the first match, more than any other manager in the division. At four alterations per game, the team is changing more often than it did last season (2.8), when they employed three managers. Little wonder the new-look Tottenham are struggling to gel.
Injuries have not helped, as De Zerbi has mentioned with reference to pre-season. “Micky van de Ven suffered an injury in Australia,” he said. “Domi Solanke the same. James Maddison the same. Mateus Fernandes suffered an injury in Australia. He lost 15 days and it’s not so quick.”
Commercial pressures inevitably influence which countries clubs visit each summer. Chelsea were also in Australia this year, and Aston Villa and Manchester City played friendlies in Asia. But Tottenham were the only club who also went to that side of the world the previous summer. Spurs led the Premier League for days lost to injury in 2025-26 according to Premier Injuries (1,560), with Newcastle (1,271), Arsenal (1,115) and Liverpool (967) also in the top seven; these four clubs were those who went to Asia in summer 2025. High injury tallies may be coincidental but it is fair to question whether another lengthy pre-season trek was right for Tottenham.
Several metrics illustrate their attacking problems. Spurs are capable of getting the ball into dangerous areas, before the next step trips them up.
Their total of 46 completed take-ons leads the Premier League. Only five of these successful dribbles ended with the player creating a chance or taking a shot though. Manchester United have completed 17 fewer take-ons than Tottenham yet have produced tangible output with almost twice as many (nine) chances or shots.
It is similar for high turnovers, which occur when the ball is recovered within 40 metres of the opposition goal to begin a new possession sequence. Spurs have recorded the fourth-most this season (34), but only Coventry (one) have ended fewer of them with a shot (two). Tottenham have produced a goal attempt from 5.9% of their high turnovers when the league average is 19.9%. Nothing is flowing smoothly.
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The costliest statistic may concern their productivity in the opposition penalty area. Again, their total of touches in the opposition box – 119, one fewer than Arsenal – looks decent enough. They are often well located to score. But they are taking 3.97 touches per shot in the box, 0.47 more than any other team and 1.15 above average. Everything is taking a beat too long, fatal for many an attacking move.
But look at the makeup of their squad. In terms of Premier League career goals, the 32-year-old left-back Andy Robertson was their top summer signing with 12. Despite being the second-most-expensive transfer in Europe in summer 2024, Solanke still has more goals in the Championship (44) than Premier League (41) and has yet to play the equivalent of 38 full league games for the club across two-plus seasons. Mikey Moore has a quarter of their shots on target (three) in 2026-27, yet played only 90 minutes before going on loan to Cologne.
From once having two of the most accurate shooters in the game in Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, Spurs have filled their roster with men who struggle to hit the proverbial barn door. Most of their squad are at best a few percentage points above league average for shot accuracy, with many of their players below. Chelsea and Bournemouth (24) have had twice as many shots on target as Tottenham this season from no more than nine extra shots in total.
“We have to shoot more, we have to shoot better and we have to finish better the clear situations,” De Zerbi said after the Carabao Cup defeat at Anfield on Tuesday. His team had scored, though an error from Liverpool’s goalkeeper, Giorgi Mamardashvili, played a huge part in Conor Gallagher’s goal. Tottenham cannot rely on opponents making mistakes to bail out their cadre of wasteful attackers. But how long will it take for their mostly young band of new recruits to form an effective unit? Much work lies ahead.
