Roberto De Zerbi: “Work starts now – we can’t lose time”

Joao Palhinha struck the goal that mattered to beat Everton 1-0 at an emotional Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.

That took Roberto’s record to three wins, two draws and two defeats in his seven games in charge – securing 17th place in the Premier League.

The feeling afterwards was very much of looking ahead.

Speaking to us pitchside, Roberto was asked to describe his emotions. “It's tough, no?” he said. “Because I stay 50 days underwater. I don't know if it's the right word. Without the time, without... I try to help the players.

“I believe in my players at the beginning. I believe at the beginning, before I came, when I was in Brighton, I had a big consideration about Pedro Porro, van de Ven, Udogie, Bentancur, Palhinha, a lot of players.

“Today I'm happy because these fans, the club, the board of the club, Vinai, Johan, they deserve a day like this.

“Now I will be very, very strong because we have to build the new Tottenham. I don't want to change too many players because I'm lucky to work with... I'm lucky working with a lot of these players as guys, first of all, and as players, but we need to change the mood.

“I would like to compete. For what? I don't know, but we need to bring, I don't know how many players, but first level of players.

“I'm looking forward to start to work again because we suffered too much this season. Not just me, because I suffered 50 days, the players and the board, the fans, they suffered more than me, but now we can't lose time and we can't be too happy. We have to stay focused on our work and our plan because I have a clear plan.

“We have to keep in our head this day because if we don't forget this day, I think we can become better in our work, in life, in the training, every day, push like... the right thing is every day we have to push like Tottenham-Everton.”