LONDON -- The walk along the Tottenham High Road is long at the best of times, but it was made a little bit longer on Saturday afternoon. With the overground closed and the rain coming down, supporters who had made the trip a few hours earlier, many of them expecting to see their team lose, now made the return journey having just seen it happen.
After this 3-2 home defeat to a previously winless Aston Villa, Spurs are off to their worst ever start to a Premier League season. They spent more than £380 million this summer so the consecutive 17th-place finishes of the last two campaigns would never be repeated. They are 19th at the time of writing.
The good news is Spurs ended their more-than-eight-hour wait to score a Premier League goal when Conor Gallagher flicked one over the line with four minutes of time remaining.
You're still thinking about the bad news, aren't you?
- Chambers: Sorry Spurs beaten despite finally scoring
Roberto De Zerbi arrived in north London in March to pull off a daring and genuinely impressive rescue act just at the point when some fans were trying to convince themselves that relegation should actually be a welcome relief, a real chance to cleanse and purify this thing. Uber-optimists will still have found some reasons for hope in this Tottenham performance: Spurs swarmed Villa in the first 25 minutes! Villa's goalkeeper was named player of the match! But fast forward to that walk back to Seven Sisters station, past Chick-King, the Polish supermarket and the many betting shops, and Spurs have found a way to lose again.
Back inside the Tottenham Hotspur mega dome, an angry De Zerbi was trying to find the words to explain the first two goals Spurs had conceded. He spoke of an "unacceptable" Nicolas Jackson strike which, despite the late goal flurry, effectively ended the match as a contest. He talked about the "leaders" having to "lead the team" in tough moments, before revealing that he hadn't spoken to his players after the match because he didn't want to say anything to them.
The Italian arrived with his belief in his methods so secure that he was talking up Micky van de Ven as "one of the best centre-backs in Europe" and punching his own forearm in delight after a crucial win in the battle against the drop. Here, though, his body began to contort in ways reminiscent of thwarted Spurs managers of the past. He pulled his black t-shirt over his face after Sávio smashed a shot straight at Zion Suzuki two times in three seconds before later sitting in the dugout with a thousand-yard stare and his hands over his head as Villa took control.
Unai Emery will have recognised it; he's beaten Spurs five times in his last six attempts and shaken hands with three different opposing managers whilst doing so.
- De Zerbi refuses to speak to Tottenham players, calls on 'leaders' to 'lead'
As an observer who hasn't had to spend a penny watching Spurs' recent downfall first-hand, it's tempting to pull back from this latest setback and talk in broad brushstrokes about this Spurs 'project', pointing to the objectively good players signed and an overhaul of the wage structure as reasons for long-term positivity. But it's worth remembering that match-going supporters are having to give a piece of themselves to earn the cold, hard cash you need to turn up every fortnight and watch this misfiring team try to build some momentum.
Villa have now won as many domestic matches at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (3) in in the past year as Tottenham. Some rudimentary maths reveals that, on average, an ever-present supporter has spent roughly £600 per victory.
Watching football when the leaves are starting to fall is always a case of squinting a little and looking for the hard edges that will eventually form into a narrative. It's poring over underlying numbers and evaluating overperformance to try to get a sense of what's real and what's not. Are De Zerbi's Tottenham the second-worst team in the league? Or are they a few more fortunate breaks away from a meteoric rise to their rightful place?
Emery said ahead of the match -- in a definitely not Pep Guardiola dishing out faint praise sort of way -- that he expects Spurs to be in the top four when they meet again in May. Twenty-four hours later he left north London talking up his team's prowess in both boxes: "We signed him [Zion Suzuki] first because he's a fantastic goalkeeper and second because he has qualities to play and build up like we want", later adding that Jackson "today was wow."
It's too soon to really say Emery's opposite number is under genuine pressure heading into the international break to end all international breaks. He retains the backing of the club hierarchy, but this squad was built in his image at great expense -- and it doesn't make for good viewing right now.
A new manager and 10 new players, but there's nothing different to find at the end of the Tottenham High Road.
