Roberto De Zerbi has warned Tottenham’s relegation rivals not to count them out and promised there will be no crying at the club over more injury problems this season.
Spurs secured a first Premier League win in 16 matches at Wolves on Saturday, but it was quickly followed by Xavi Simons (knee) being ruled out for the majority of 2026 while Dominic Solanke is also out with a hamstring issue.
Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa, De Zerbi started his press conference with a four-minute monologue about silencing negativity and reiterated his belief 18th-placed Tottenham can stay up.
“I watched you. I watched you this week,” De Zerbi told a Sky Sports reporter.
“Listen, I want to be clear one time. The most important challenge now is to silence the voice inside of us, inside of the players, inside of the staff and inside of the fans. This voice can produce negative thoughts.
“The voice says, ‘we are unlucky, we have too many injuries, we lost Xavi Simons and he was the last two games one of the best players and most important players for us, our medical staff is not good enough and the pitch of the stadium is not good, the pitch of the training ground is not good, it is impossible to win two or three games in a row because we have not won too many games in 2026’. I think it is all negative things and it is rubbish.
“We go to play against one of the best teams in this moment in the Premier League. We have a big respect for Emery as a coach, but if Tottenham win in Villa Park, it is not a miracle.
“Maybe we lose, I don’t know, but we have the quality to win this game and it is not a miracle, so I think we have to be positive and to be lucky because we are working in a big club.
“I heard no, that it is impossible, we are crying everyone and we are relegated. But no, not yet. And we have to die on the pitch and to die on the pitch we have to lose the game.
“Before we lose the game we have to play, we have to fight and we have two points less than West Ham, but West Ham have to play difficult games as well like us.
“For that, OK it is not the best moment for us, it is a tough moment, a difficult moment, but the losers cry. The losers think negative. I don’t want people close to me crying or to think in a different way to me.
“We are good enough to win the games and we are good enough to stay up.”
Spurs will be without at least eight players at Villa Park with Guglielmo Vicario still ruled out, but Destiny Udogie is available.
On whether Solanke can play again this season, De Zerbi said: “I don’t know yet.”
