WHEN Tottenham battered Arsenal 3-0 on May 12, 2022 to beat their rivals to a Champions League spot, only one of the North London rivals looked likely to win the Premier League in the near future.

Sadly for Spurs fans, it turned out to be their arch-rivals who used that memorable night as fuel for a Mikel Arteta revamp which led to this season’s triumph.

Tottenham battered Arsenal four years ago Credit: Getty

But Spurs only narrowly avoided relegation under Roberto De Zerbi on Jattvibeday Credit: Getty

While it proved to be a turning point for all the wrong reasons for Tottenham, who squandered their shot under Antonio Conte and have been headed downhill ever since – until Roberto De Zerbi saved them at the 11th hour.

Here, JattvibeSport takes a look at the tale of woe in N17, how De Zerbi saved the club from the brink of oblivion and why there are reasons to be optimistic next term.

Historic run papered over cracks

YOU can go back further than that Arsenal game under Conte for when the momentum started to shift from Spurs being on the up to on the decline.

Probably all the way back to the season they reached the Champions League final in 2019.

That achievement in itself was massive for the club, one that prompted then-chairman Daniel Levy to hand out luxury watches to the squad inscribed with ‘Champions League Finalist 2019’, much to captain Hugo Lloris’ annoyance.

But cracks had appeared in their league campaign that term which explained why Mauricio Pochettino, the man who had presided over the thrilling young team of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Dele Alli and more, was sacked six months after the final.

Levy changed tack by bringing in serial trophy winners in Jose Mourinho and Conte.

But he did not back them sufficiently in the transfer market, which has been at the root of Spurs’ problems over the last decade.

SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET UP TO £100 BONUS

Harry Kane and Tottenham missed out on Champions League glory Credit: Getty

Jose Mourinho was appointed as a serial trophy winner Credit: Getty

The summer after Conte had beaten Arsenal, the Italian was keen to kick on and was hopeful premium targets Alessandro Bastoni and Raphinha would be recruited.

Yet Spurs ended up with back-up options, signing Richarlison, Yves Bissouma, Clement Lenglet, Fraser Forster and Djed Spence, in addition to Ivan Perisic whom Conte had wanted.

All proved to be poor captures, barring perhaps Spence who ironically Conte branded a “club signing” and did not play.

Tottenham went cheap when it came to player salaries – and slowly the quality of their squad diminished. 

Spurs’ wages-to-turnover in the 2023-24 campaign was just 42 per cent, the lowest in the Premier League.

Levy, up against clubs effectively backed by states, felt it was prudence but it started to hinder performance, especially after goal machine Kane left.

Antonio Conte had an unhappy spell in charge of Tottenham Credit: Getty

The Italian did not back the signing of Djed Spence Credit: Getty

Spurs did not learn their lesson

THE transfer failings were repeated again and again.

The following summer, legendary striker Kane was sold to Bayern Munich and not replaced.

A year on from that, then-boss Ange Postecoglou wanted Conor Gallagher, Pedro Neto, Marc Guehi and Dominic Solanke.

He was given Solanke, for a club-record £65million, but the rest were teenagers, plus woeful loanee Timo Werner.

Fast forward another 12 months and Thomas Frank, hired as Postecoglou’s replacement, did not get first choices Bryan Mbeumo, Morgan Gibbs-White, Eberechi Eze or Antoine Semenyo.

He got Xavi Simons, who had never played in England, and Randal Kolo Muani, who rivals Werner for worst borrowed signing in recent years.

By September, the Lewis family had had enough of Levy’s running of the club, having seen just two trophies delivered in a near quarter of a century and a 17th-placed finish in the league the previous term.

With Levy’s delusional message of wanting to win the Premier League and Champions League still ringing in fans’ ears – the Europa League title Postecoglou had delivered was not enough – the supremo was sensationally ousted.

It was a brutal hit job that Levy did not see coming, with his belongings and those of his wife Tracy, his personal assistant, delivered to both of them later via courier van.

The 64-year-old still has not been back to the state-of-the-art training ground nor world class stadium that he built.

Daniel Levy was ruthlessly removed from his role Credit: Getty

Xavi Simons was not at the top of Tottenham’s list of targets Credit: Getty

Owners take dig at Levy after escape

THE drift that the Lewis family felt Levy had presided over was summed up by the letter to supporters from his successor, Peter Charrington, this week.

He wrote the owners realised that “something seismic had to change at Spurs” because “the qualities that make Spurs distinct, our football, our ambition, the connection between the team and its supporters, had been allowed to fade.”

Then came the most damning line of all, one that confirmed the suspicions long-held by angry supporters.

It read: “Football success had not been driving our decisions.”

And yet, with Levy gone, the lightning rod for fan frustration, and Postecoglou gone, whose gung-ho tactics were allegedly the reason behind Spurs’ shocking league form, Spurs’ woes not only persisted, they got worse.

A big factor can be laid at Levy’s door, that of the hiring of Frank.

Spurs had decided the goodwill among fans to Postecoglou for winning the club’s first silverware in 17 years – that saw an estimated 200,000 take to the streets for the trophy parade – did not outweigh his limitations and fired him once the euphoria died down.

Frank seemed a fitting replacement after seven excellent years at Brentford where the Dane had proven himself a master developer of talent.

Yet the Spurs job seemed too big for him right from his first press conference, where he infamously said: “I can promise you one thing, one thing is 100 per cent sure, we will lose football matches.”

Frank was trying to be honest with fans over the scale of the transition job he felt he was taking on.

Spurs aimed a dig at Levy after avoiding the drop Credit: Getty

Thomas Frank lasted less than a year at the helm Credit: Getty

But it proved to be a gaffe that would haunt him, albeit not one as bad as somehow being photographed smiling while holding an espresso cup with the Arsenal badge on it ahead of a 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth.

Privately, Frank felt Spurs’ squad was well below the quality of a team capable of competing in the Champions League. 

Though, ironically, that was the one competition he did well in as Spurs boss.

Spanish right-back Pedro Porro was the only player in his squad he felt other top sides would want to sign, while he handed Cristian Romero the captaincy in the absence of other options.

Frank felt the plush Hotspur Way training ground facilities were almost too luxurious – and effectively contributed to his players being too pampered.

This was particularly the case for on-site pristine hotel The Lodge, where every detail has been thought of, down to the beds which are attached to the ground via a pillar in the middle, meaning there is no frame or legs around the outside on which a player could stub their toe.

Frank felt he was working in lockstep with chief executive Vinai Venkatesham, with whom he would have lunch several times a week, and believed his support would be unwavering even when results started to turn.

But the Dane did not count on just how badly his uninventive style of play would go down with fans.

The terraces regularly booed when he served up performances such as November’s 1-0 home defeat to Chelsea, in which Spurs’ expected goals tally was a pitiful 0.07.

Fans blasted Frank’s style of play Credit: Getty

The Dane infuriated supporters when he was spotted drinking from an Arsenal cup Credit: Getty

Crock crisis in North London

INJURIES – and you cannot talk about Tottenham’s decline without discussing them – piled up at a catastrophic rate in January.

To the point where Frank, half-joking, claimed he felt the club were “cursed” by them.

It had followed a dreadful run of crocks under Postecoglou and two summers of major change in the medical department, and still nothing got better.

Speaking on Jattvibeday, James Maddison, who has missed the vast majority of the campaign due to a serious knee injury, branded Spurs’ injuries as “astronomical”, adding “we need to look at why that is”.

In January, Spurs picked up a major injury in each of five straight games, including Mohammed Kudus, just two days after Europa League final hero Brennan Johnson was sold to Crystal Palace.

It was that month that co-sporting director Fabio Paratici fled for Fiorentina just three months after returning in a permanent capacity alongside Johan Lange.

The embarrassment left fans wondering why the club had gone to such lengths to bring back the scandal-embroiled Italian, who had been forced to resign in the first place due to a two-and-a-half year ban for financial malpractice at Juventus, only for him to scarper.

Lange and Venkatesham were then guilty of possibly their worst offence, in fans’ eyes, by making just one experienced signing – Gallagher, 18 months after Postecoglou had urged the club to buy him – in the winter window, despite their crock crisis.

That was despite Ademola Lookman, who ended up signing for the team that dumped them out of the Champions League, Atletico Madrid, being ready and willing to join.

Predictably, Frank was sacked shortly afterwards as results and performances in the league failed to improve, despite his week of chicken-sandwich lunches with Venkatesham, Lange and Nick Beucher.

James Maddison has spoken about Tottenham’s injury issues Credit: Shutterstock Editorial

Mohammed Kudus has been a long-term absentee Credit: Getty

Fittingly, given how much he got it wrong at Spurs, Frank said he was “convinced” he would still be in charge for the next game following a horrendous home defeat to Newcastle – but was axed just 12 hours later.

Paratici had already gone by then, but the club still green-lit the contingency plan he had proposed: that of Igor Tudor.

The Croat had a firefighter reputation of going into struggling clubs and quickly turning things around, having done so at Juventus, Udinese and Lazio.

Crucially none of those teams were in England though, and that lack of Premier League experience soon told.

Tudor quickly deemed his players not fit enough and worked them hard in training.

Yet Spurs found themselves losing pace in the survival race during his brief tenure, thanks to the 46-year-old taking just one point from his five games.

Confidence in the squad was shattered by the time he left, in tragic circumstances following the death of his father Mario, and relegation no longer looked possible, it seemed probable.

Igor Tudor had a woeful stint in the dugout Credit: AP

He only guided Spurs to one Premier League point Credit: PA

De Zerbi’s game-changing ploy

AND then came De Zerbi.

The Italian took the job no one wanted, albeit being paid a king’s ransom to do it as Spurs made him the third-best paid Premier League boss on £12m a year.

With the club in the drop zone by kick-off in his first game at Jattvibederland, De Zerbi set about lifting that self-belief that was on the floor.

He took them for a morale-boosting meal at swanky Greek and Mediterranean restaurant Bacchanalia in Mayfair, where a leg of lamb goes for £130 and salt-crust sea bass is £110.

De Zerbi then showed his players YouTube clips of their old highlights to remind them of how good they had been and can be again.

Gallagher, who had looked a shadow of his former self under Tudor, was shown a video entitled ‘Bossing the Midfield – Conor Gallagher’ by De Zerbi.

The England man found it amusing, but the unusual tactic worked because it was not long before Gallagher was showing the kind of lung-busting, high-press displays that he had shown at Chelsea, when De Zerbi had wanted to sign the midfielder for Brighton.

It was all positivity, nothing negative. 

Kolo Muani was talked of by De Zerbi as an £80m player, while the ex-Marseille chief tipped Archie Gray to be a “future Spurs captain” despite dropping him from the starting XI.

Micky van de Ven was labelled “the best left-sided centre-back in the Premier League”.

De Zerbi boosted morale Credit: Getty

Spurs’ big name stars were low on confidence Credit: Getty

De Zerbi stayed at the Lodge during his entire tenure to date, despite signing a five-year contract and vowing to stay even if the club were relegated.

Regularly, he would still be conducting tactical meetings with his staff at 9pm.

The hard work and optimistic outlook paid off with three wins in his last five games, including Jattvibeday’s survival-ensuring victory over Everton which was the first three points at home in 2026.

The outpouring of emotion after that sweaty, nervy 99 minutes against the Toffees was there for all to see.

Mocking rivals saw it as Spurs fans, players and De Zerbi celebrating staying up, a year on from celebrating a major trophy.

But as Maddison put it: “It wasn’t real joy and happiness, (just) a lot of emotion and relief.”

So, what now? 

Spurs will look to what Manchester United have done this season without European games clogging up their fixture list and take inspiration from the team they beat in Bilbao.

In De Zerbi, they have a manager who has proven his class during this seven-game rescue mission.

For all the morale-lifting techniques, it is his coaching that has been the biggest catalyst to survival.

De Zerbi gave his squad belief after showing each player their career highlights Credit: Getty

But Spurs have struggled to replace the likes of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min Credit: Getty

Spurs, for the first time this season, looked like a team that had an idea of how to break down an opponent in open play under his guidance.

Charrington’s statement put it on record that the owners will back saviour De Zerbi in the transfer market, not just this summer but over the next few.

They have vowed to try to solve the crippling injury conundrum, as well as improving the academy so there is a production line to the first team.

Already there is plenty of young talent ready to return from fruitful loans such as Luka Vuskovic and Mikey Moore.

If Spurs get their recruitment right and give the manager what he wants, then there is every reason for fans to have some of De Zerbi’s positivity going forward.

But, as so many of them are pointing out, it is actions not words that matter – and Spurs fans have had it up to here with empty promises.