{"id":12074,"date":"2026-05-24T01:19:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=12074"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:19:25","slug":"de-zerbi-reaffirms-commitment-to-spurs-as-relegation-battle-comes-to-conclusion-tottenham-hotspur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=12074","title":{"rendered":"De Zerbi reaffirms commitment to Spurs as relegation battle comes to conclusion | Tottenham Hotspur"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Roberto De Zerbi has warned Tottenham\u2019s players that their futures at the club are on the line against Everton on Sunday and reaffirmed his commitment to stay on if they are relegated for the first time since 1977. A point for Spurs would almost certainly mean they finish above West Ham thanks to their superior goal difference, even if West Ham beat Leeds in their final game.<\/p>\n

Having missed the chance to seal safety after suffering a first defeat in five matches, against Chelsea in midweek, Tottenham know that any slip-ups could prove disastrous.<\/p>\n

Spurs have lost 10 matches at home in the Premier League this season and have not won at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since the start of December. De Zerbi recognised that his players\u2019 confidence is fragile, although the Italian insisted they are all aware of what is at stake.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNo, absolutely false. No, no, no, it\u2019s not true,\u201d he said when it was put to him that they do not care enough. \u201cMaybe (it\u2019s) totally different, maybe they suffered too much. Their reaction has been not right, but not for that reason because they are sensitive guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they didn\u2019t know how they can go out of this situation. But there is just one solution to go out: to be strong, to be stronger than the atmosphere of the situation, or the injuries, or the negative things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if they are playing for their futures, he said: \u201cFor sure. Every one of us, we are playing for the future of Tottenham.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Zerbi said it was his decision to arrange for the team to spend the night together before the Everton game and arrive at the stadium on the team bus \u201cto create the right atmosphere\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Andrey Santos celebrates scoring Chelsea\u2019s second goal with Liam Delap in their 2-1 victory.<\/span> Photograph: David Klein\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI want to put the heads on ice,\u201d he said. \u201cThe secret is to manage the pressure. To manage the pressure you have to be clear and honest with yourself. The level of difficulty of the game is high.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are fighting for something very important for everyone. But it is football. But we have enough quality. To attack the pressure you have to find the valour inside of yourself, to understand the situation and force yourself to give your best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Brighton manager signed a five-year contract at the end of March after replacing the interim head coach, Igor Tudor. He said at the time that he wanted to stay even if Spurs went down, and nothing has changed. \u201cIt\u2019s still an honour to be a coach for Tottenham, even if on Sunday we play for the relegation fight, it\u2019s not a problem. I consider football something more than the (league) table.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roberto De Zerbi has warned Tottenham\u2019s players that their futures at the club are on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}