De Zerbi tells Tottenham to stay calm as four-game scoring drought continues

Roberto De Zerbi has called on Tottenham to remain calm and retain their confidence after a goalless draw with Everton extended their difficult start to the Premier League season.

Tottenham have now failed to score in their opening four league matches, becoming the first side in the club’s history to draw a blank in each of the first four games of a campaign.

De Zerbi acknowledged the frustration among supporters and apologised after another disappointing result.

“I’m sorry for the fans. We are sorry to the fans,” he said.

The Italian said the atmosphere had initially reflected the way his side began the match, with Tottenham controlling much of the first half and trying to find a way through Everton’s defence.

“They were fantastic, especially in the first part of the game because when they see the team is playing well, pushing to find the solution, they were inside the pitch with my players,” De Zerbi said.

“Then the reaction of the fans is normal.”

Tottenham dominated possession and territory for long periods but created little genuine danger in the final third. De Zerbi said his players had entered the Everton penalty area 74 times, yet had not converted that pressure into enough attempts or clear-cut chances.

“We didn’t shoot enough for the quality of the play we showed,” he said.

The manager said Tottenham needed to examine how they had used the opportunities to attack, adding that poor choices had undermined their efforts.

“We have to analyse the quality of the decisions but we made too many wrong decisions.”

Despite the continued failure to score, De Zerbi said the players must avoid allowing the drought to damage their belief.

“I said to stay calm, maybe don’t lose the confidence because we are not scoring, we are not winning,” he said.

“Stay calm, improve, work hard and individually try to understand where the improvement is.”