De Zerbi apologises to Spurs fans after Newcastle Utd defeat
Tottenham coach Roberto De Zerbi has apologised to the club’s supporters following a dismal 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United at home on Saturday.
The North Londoners continued their poor start to the season with another limp performance after going down 3-0 to Brentford last weekend.
Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa scored two second half goals to hand Newcastle United the maximum points.
Tottenham Hotspur have lost their opening two matches of a league campaign without scoring for the first time since the 1974-75 season.
De Zerbi was disappointed with the team’s performance while apologising to the supporters following another poor showing.
He said: “We will not panic. I know very well where we are going, what the plan is and what difficult problems we could find in our way. I am sorry for the fans and sorry for the players for the result but we have to improve and to change two seasons like the last two is impossible in 10 days and with people in the transfer market.
“We have to work hard on the pitch and find the connection with the players because last season before the end of the season we were in the Championship and we stayed up together.
“I think for 65 minutes we played better than Newcastle, we had a chance to score and didn’t score. And then after the goal we lost the distances. We created other chances but if you analyse the game, we had more chances, more shots, we are not a team yet and have to improve on a lot of things but that is normal for a new team.
“Forget the result. I am not angry, we are working well and were unlucky today with the result.”
The Italian manager urged the fans and the players to be calm as they aim to improve in their next game.
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De Zerbi concluded: “Now we have to keep calm and focus on improvement. We have a great squad and great players, we can’t use all the players we brought but if we work in this way and believe in ourselves I think we will change the last two seasons. If the rush is more important than the journey we can’t find the solutions to the last two seasons.”
Newcastle United have now earned four points from two Premier League games while Tottenham are yet to record any point so far.
The Magpies will hope to continue their impressive start to the season when they take on Bournemouth on Saturday while Tottenham will face Nottingham Forest on the same day.
In the other Premier League games on Saturday, Liverpool played out a 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest, Hull City defeated Coventry City 1-0, Bournemouth and Everton shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw.
Top Stats From Tottenham vs Newcastle United according to Opta
Anthony Elanga is the first player to score in both of Newcastle United’s first two Premier League games of a campaign since Alan Shearer in 2003-04.
Tottenham Hotspur have lost their opening two matches of a league campaign without scoring for the first time since the 1974-75 season.
Only three away sides have won 5+ Premier League games against Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since it opened in April 2019:
◎ 6 – Chelsea
◎ 5 – Liverpool
◉ 5 – Newcastle
Newcastle have won more Premier League away games against Tottenham than any other opponent they have faced in the competition (14).
