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Tottenham Hotspur have gone through their opening four Premier League matches of the season without scoring a single goal, a first for the club in its history across all four tiers of English football, and their longest goalless run in the top flight since September 2006, despite spending more than £300 million on a squad overhaul during the summer transfer window.
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The latest setback came in a goalless home draw against Everton, extending Tottenham’s scoreless run in the league to 407 minutes, with the club’s underlying attacking numbers suggesting the problem runs deeper than bad luck, given a non-penalty expected goals per shot figure of just 0.066, equivalent to a 6.6% expected conversion rate.
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Roberto De Zerbi introduced a host of attacking changes against Everton in search of a breakthrough, including summer signings Omar Marmoush and Savio, along with a first league start of the season for Dominic Solanke, but none of the changes proved effective as Spurs failed to register a shot on target until after half-time.
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Supporters have grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of goals, with one fan displaying a banner reading “Please Score A Goal” before kick-off against Everton, and jeers greeting the players at full-time, prompting De Zerbi to apologise to fans while insisting his side’s underlying performances will eventually translate into results.
September 13, (THEWILL) – Tottenham Hotspur’s ambitious summer rebuild was supposed to signal the beginning of a new era under Roberto De Zerbi, but four Premier League games into his tenure, the results are yet to justify the scale of the investment behind it.
Spurs spent more than £300 million during the summer transfer window, backing their new manager with a significantly reshaped squad following two consecutive 17th-place Premier League finishes. Rather than producing an immediate improvement, however, Tottenham have found themselves struggling for the most basic currency in football: goals.
The latest disappointment came at home against Everton, where Spurs were held to a goalless draw despite dominating possession for long periods of the match. The result extended their goalless league run to 407 minutes and left the club still searching for its first Premier League goal of the campaign.
The contrast between Tottenham’s transfer spending and their attacking output is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
The club entered the season hoping De Zerbi’s appointment, combined with an expensive recruitment drive, would mark a decisive break from the struggles of the previous two campaigns. Instead, Spurs have now gone through their first four league matches without scoring, marking the first time in the club’s history that has happened across all four tiers of English football.
Tottenham have not endured four consecutive Premier League matches without a goal since September 2006, a statistic that makes for particularly uncomfortable reading given the scale of the summer outlay.
The expectation heading into the season was that the new additions would provide De Zerbi with greater quality and attacking options. Against Everton, however, Tottenham repeatedly struggled to turn their possession into genuine danger.
Their first shot on target didn’t arrive until after half-time, when £85 million summer signing Mateus Fernandes tested goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, a moment reportedly met with ironic applause from sections of the home crowd.
De Zerbi has inherited a club in clear need of change, with Tottenham finishing 17th in the Premier League in each of the previous two seasons, ultimately leaving the club focused on survival rather than European qualification.
The decision to make sweeping changes was therefore understandable, but the Italian coach is discovering that spending heavily doesn’t automatically translate into immediate chemistry, confidence or results.
Against Everton, De Zerbi attempted to alter the picture by introducing new signings Omar Marmoush and Savio, while Dominic Solanke was given his first league start of the campaign.
Mohammed Kudus and James Maddison were also brought on as Tottenham searched for a breakthrough, but nothing worked. Lucas Bergvall came closest to finding a winning moment late in the game, only for Pickford to deny him.
Tottenham’s lack of goals doesn’t appear to be simply a matter of misfortune.
Their underlying attacking numbers point toward a team struggling to create sufficiently threatening opportunities, with expected-goals data suggesting Spurs should have scored around three or four goals already this season based on the chances they’ve created.
Their non-penalty expected goals per shot stands at just 0.066, translating to an expected conversion rate of only 6.6%, a figure that makes the £300 million investment even more significant given the intention was always for the new squad to give De Zerbi the tools needed to make Tottenham genuinely competitive again.
The mood inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is beginning to reflect the growing gap between expectation and performance. Before kick-off against Everton, one supporter held up a banner reading “Please Score A Goal”, a simple message capturing the building anxiety around a side still waiting for its first league goal of the season. By full-time, that frustration had intensified further, with jeers greeting the players as they left the pitch.
De Zerbi acknowledged the supporters’ disappointment afterwards, apologising for another frustrating result. The manager, however, insisted his side had shown promising signs during the opening stages of the match and argued that maintaining that level for longer periods would eventually start producing victories. “If we play 90 minutes like we did in the first 30 minutes, I think we are going to win many games”, De Zerbi said.
There remains plenty of time for De Zerbi’s project to develop. A major squad overhaul inevitably requires players to adapt to new systems, build relationships and develop confidence, and Tottenham are still emerging from two seasons in which their performances and league position necessitated substantial change. But patience becomes considerably harder to maintain when the results remain this stark.
More than £300 million has gone into reshaping the squad, yet Tottenham have no Premier League goals after four matches and are still waiting for their first league victory of the season.
The spending has created expectations; the new manager has created expectations; the new era has created expectations. What Tottenham need now is for the football on the pitch to start matching all three.
Olumide Atiba is a sports journalist with THEWILL, known for his keen news sense and compelling storytelling. He has built a reputation for turning leads into clear, well-structured reports that resonate with readers, with a strong focus on football coverage
