Roberto De Zerbi bemoaned Tottenham’s injury curse after a first Premier League win of 2026 away to Wolves was overshadowed by potential significant problems for Xavi Simons and Dominic Solanke.
Joao Palhinha’s 82nd-minute tap-in earned De Zerbi a first victory as Spurs boss and ended a 16-match wait for a league win, but the north London club remain in the bottom three after West Ham produced a last-gasp winner at home to Everton.
De Zerbi was eager to move on from results elsewhere and yet struggled to hide his frustration at injuries to Xavi and Solanke, who were forced off either side of half-time with knee and left leg problems respectively.
“I’m happy for the result. I hope this result can change something in our head, in our mentality and for the other results, it’s already very tough to win a game for us. If we put our heads on the other teams, it becomes too tough for me,” De Zerbi said.
“I wouldn’t like to lose any other players because (Cristian) Romero, (Mohammed) Kudus, now Solanke and maybe Xavi.
“We can win the games with the players, not with the coaches. The coaches are important but the players are more important. But I want to be positive.”
Spurs started strongly at already relegated Wolves and Randal Kolo Muani sent one effort wide before Xavi dragged another shot off target.
An innocuous injury to Solanke after 37 minutes knocked Tottenham off their stride and Xavi collapsed to the floor in agony in the 57th minute, but De Zerbi revealed the playmaker felt better after full-time.
De Zerbi added: “For Solanke it is not a big problem. I don’t know how many games we lose him but I would like to know the situation with Xavi because the knee is always different than the muscular injury.
“(Xavi) felt pain. Now I spoke to him two, three minutes ago. He feels better than the beginning of the injury.”
After the departure of Xavi, Spurs were indebted to back-up goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky for quick reactions to thwart Adam Armstrong before Palhinha sparked wild celebrations from the 3,010 away fans when he slide in to convert Richarlison’s scuffed shot.
Tottenham momentarily went out of the relegation zone when Everton levelled at West Ham before a late winner at London Stadium was almost followed by an equaliser for Wolves, only for Kinsky to produce a sensational one-hand save to deny Joao Gomes’ free-kick.
“When I knew better my players, I understood we have the possibility and the chance to stay up. We have two points (from safety),” De Zerbi said.
“Not 10 points, we have two points from West Ham. They are a good team, but also Tottenham have very good players and are a very good team.”
Wolves’ relegation had been confirmed on Monday night, but they produced a spirited display and boss Rob Edwards was eager to focus on the positives.
“It’s been really hard this week. The final nail in the coffin and relegated. Maybe other teams would have gone under and they might have been a shambles, it wasn’t that,” Edwards said.
“It was a proper game of football but we’ve lost it. So there will be people that say what they want to say, but those boys that were out there gave everything.”
