Tottenham Spent £300 Million. They Have the Worst Big Six Start in Premier League History.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 — Let’s rewind the tape to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Saturday afternoon. Aston Villa just won 3-2. Tottenham’s first league goals of the season — late consolations from Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke — arrived only after Villa had gone 3-0 up and the home supporters had started streaming for the exits. Mohammed Kudus thought he’d levelled; VAR spotted an offside in the build-up. Nicolas Jackson and Emi Buendia did the rest of the damage for Villa. And with that, Tottenham — bottom of the Premier League, zero wins, two points from five — officially own the worst start by a Big Six club in the competition’s history, pre-takeover Manchester City excepted. Worse, on goal difference, than their own infamous 2008/09 collapse.

Let’s sit with the numbers, because they are genuinely absurd. Two goals in five games — Tottenham’s lowest-scoring start in twenty years, and the first time in club history they have failed to score in the opening four league games of a season. Their latest goal-less run to open a campaign since 1974/75. Two points puts them 45th in the all-time worst Premier League starts; without those two late consolations against Villa, they’d be 39th. They have won only three of their last twenty-five home league games, losing fifteen of them. And here’s the detail that really stings: the 2008/09 side that got Juande Ramos sacked in October had the same two points — and twice as many goals. This start isn’t just historically bad for a Big Six club. It’s historically bad by Tottenham’s own standards, and Tottenham wrote the book.

Now rewind to the summer. Tottenham committed more than £300 million to the rebuild — ten new faces through the door, including Sandro Tonali, Savio, Mateus Fernandes and Jan Paul van Hecke — while the spine of the old side walked out: captain Cristian Romero, Djed Spence, goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario. This was a club coming off back-to-back 17th-place finishes. Back to back. The board spent hundreds of millions to fix a team that finished 17th twice in a row, and five games later that team is sitting 20th. That is not a rebuild. That is a renovation where the contractor accidentally demolished the load-bearing wall. They’re also already out of the Carabao Cup — a third-round loss at Liverpool last month — so the league is the whole show.

And then came the comedy kicker. This week, CEO Vinai Venkatesham sat down at the Fan Advisory Board meeting — club bottom of the league, winless, a trip to Old Trafford on Saturday — and issued a public vote of confidence in manager Roberto De Zerbi. The published minutes are priceless: Venkatesham “expressed confidence in De Zerbi, in the players brought in and in the changes made,” noting “the considerable work underway behind the scenes,” while acknowledging the disappointment at the points total. The considerable work. Behind the scenes. Two points. Everyone in football knows what a public vote of confidence from a CEO means in October: it means the man is one trip to Old Trafford away from the most expensive gardening leave in the division. Even Harry Redknapp — who inherited this exact disaster in 2008, won his first game and finished eighth — is baffled, calling the situation “obviously something not right” for a squad this talented. When the man who cleaned up your last collapse is telling you the house is flooding again, maybe stop blaming the weather.

The verdict

And here’s the moral clarity, since somebody has to say it: the only victims here are the supporters’ blood pressure and the club’s own bank account. The fans who streamed for the exits at 3-0 down paid Premier League prices to watch a team that cannot score. De Zerbi arrived late last season and kept the club up on the final day — a 1-0 win over Everton that pipped West Ham to safety. The reward was a £300 million summer and a start worse than any Big Six club has ever managed. The CEO says believe in the process. The table says the process is 20th. Let’s rewind it one more time, because a billion-pound institution spending nine figures to make history in the wrong direction is the most Spurs thing that has ever happened. Our sports desk has the full Premier League picture — and Saturday’s trip to Old Trafford is now the most morbidly watchable fixture of the season.