Do Spurs like the Manchester Air ?
Oct 08, 2026
Premier League: Manchester United - Tottenham Hotspur
I feel obliged to say something about Tottenham, but will just hope that my son-in-laws who are both Spurs supporters, do not get to see. In preseason my lengthy notes on them included ....
Spurs saw a 16 goal drop off last season down to 48 scored from 64, which itself was 10 goals fewer than in 2023/24. Top scorer last season was Richarlison with 11, no one else scored more than five and next three on the list were defensive players. The Brazilian has not scored more than that since 2019/20 and only actually started 8 games in the second half of last season (just five starts and 15 appearances total in 24/25) . Other strikers are Dominic (sick note ) Solanke who was not a success at the other two Big 6 clubs he has played for and who has had one good season in 8 in the EPL and one that was "ok" and Mathys Tel ( 7 goals in 58 games).
They do have offensive midfield and wide options in Kudus, Kulusevski, Maddison and Simons, but all have either been disappointing or hard hit by injury or both and Simons is going to miss most of this season. Maddison and Kulusevki played 34 minutes between them in 2025/26!
RDZ has a massive long term contract and the main supporters group complained immediately about his appointment for his "defending" of Mason Greenwood (look it up) for which he had to "apologise". He didn't have the players for his style of play (which he is emphatic about) at Spurs, hence the huge money spent on Tonali/Fernandes/JPVH in particular and will not get the HUGE analytical help he received at Brighton, which was the comment I made about Thomas Frank and Brentford when he also took over at Spurs.
This could all work, all the pieces could fall into place, but there are a lot of them and the jigsaw has fallen onto the floor over the last 2-3 seasons and one or two parts might still be missing and I am not sure they have the right dissectologist (jigsaw puzzler) at the helm.
After the transfer window closed I updated with ....
Spurs have further added Savio, Marmoush and Mudryk and spent a LOT of money on transfer fees/ loans and signing on fees (£400m+ and Edit: overpaying for them all) and yet I am not seeing a striker, or at least one who is not injury prone/has not done anything since the season before last/ or is not out of favour, or a combination of those. Spurs are pointless and yet to score a goal, they were humiliated at Brentford and might have lost by 6-7 goals and "were better" apparently than Newcastle last week, but if that is the case, I must have been watching the wrong game, as they weren't! They might come good, but it doesn't look like they are building a "team" just an expensive group of players.
They had not scored a goal in the EPL this season until the 87th minute on Saturday and were 3-0 down at home and the stadium empty, at the time. They are 1-5-8 in their last 14 EPL home games with a 14-27 goal difference and the sole win came at the end of last season when they were desperate and their opponent was already mentally lying on a beach somewhere. Spurs have won just 5/36 as hosts in the league and the current situation is everyone's fault except for De Zerbi . If I hear him say that the players are poorly conditioned, or not ready, one more time I will bash my head against a wall ! Exactly who's job is it to ensure that players come into the season in as good a shape as possible ? All teams had players at the WC and Tottenham didn't have to go on a preseason tour of Australia and New Zealand, BTW I do understand that is all about money. How about taking some personal responsibility? Now, it seems RDZ has given all players who are not on international duty a full week off instead of working on those fitness levels! Good grief! I bet that RDZ has gone home to Brescia too.
Young striker Will Lankshear was sold to Middlesbrough ( 8 goals in 11 games) because "Spurs had three strikers" (really?), one of whom was Richarlison, who was subsequently omitted from the club's EPL squad!
Something is very wrong at the club and I do not think there has been any real stability since Mauricio Pochettino was sacked almost seven years ago, after five and a bit seasons at the helm. Through which he guided them to 5-3-2-3-4 in the EPL and was dismissed less than six months after taking them to the Champions League final! Just let that sink in for a bit and then think where they are now!
No easy fix, not sure what they got for all that money, not a team that is for sure and who is going to score all the goals? They look ok for 10-15-20 minutes, maybe even twice in a game, but the problem is that games last 100 minutes! I have never felt that RDZ was the right choice and made that clear from day 1 and feel even less so now. Home supporters just seem to be waiting for the moment they can start booing and then leave early, most of those that do stay, only do so so that they can boo again at the final whistle! I suspect RDZ has 3-5 matches at most to turn things around, first up are Manchester United, Coventry City and Chelsea and the two after that will take them up to the next international break.
We have two desperate teams meeting at Old Trafford. United have conceded 10 goals in their last five home starts against EPL opposition, but have managed to win three of those, they also gave up two goals away to both Hull City and Everton taking one point from a possible six. In early August my preseason notes on them included ....
However, I have some concerns (about Man United), first up Carrick, he knows the club and league well enough, but has only coached 20 EPL games and was under less pressure in the interim role. Also he has only coached one Champions League game and that was back in 2021 and again, under no pressure, as his short first interim spell was about to end. Now he has to navigate at least 8 additional games under the microscope of managing what remains one of the 2-3 biggest clubs in world football in the competition they feel they should play in every season, but for just the second time in five years. He better hope that it is much more than eight games BTW.
United went out of both domestic cups at the first time of asking last season and had no European football, so played just 40 games total, now you are talking about an expected 54-55 or more.
In the league last season they conceded 50 goals which was third most amongst the top 8 (same as 13th placed Everton) and most by a top 3 side since 2014 (that side were Liverpool and they were 6th and 8th in the next two campaigns). Also, Bruno Fernandes was another level good with 21 assists (12 was next best in the EPL), his career numbers are very good, but that was 10 more than he has ever produced before and he turns 32yo next month. He "cannot" reproduce that and maybe not come close, the defensive issues have to be addressed and the "new" head coach needs to prove himself with an additional 10-20 games and increased media attention and that is already sky high at Old Trafford.
Tottenham's issues have been well documented and are deep rooted but looking for positives and that is not easy, they are at least away from home today and the toxic atmosphere of the Tottenham Stadium and they did finally score a goal ahead of the international break. Two in fact, but both came very late and after the game was lost in a 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa. They have scored 2+ goals in 5 of 8 visits to OT and those games have averaged 3.625 goals and playing scared today is not going to help anyone. Tottenham have also scored 14 goals total (2+ in each) in their last five visits to the Etihad and they seem to like the Manchester air. They can score twice and not take anything from this game and that is where I feel the value lies...2-2/3-2.
2 units Tottenham Hotspur to score "over" 1.5 goals @ 2.70 asian line.
Good luck!
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