£85m signing Matheus Fernades from West Ham United only featured off the bench, and while Savinho and possibly Omar Marmoush should add depth, De Zerbi’s chief worry was the glaring absence of grit and resolve.
From the outset, Spurs’ supposed fresh start looked uncomfortably like the old era: they folded at the first hint of pressure, with Brentford sensing fragility and relentlessly targeting a side they believed could be prised open.
And exposed they duly were.
Brentford might have led even earlier, but Keane Lewis-Potter struck after 12 minutes, and Vitaly Janelt’s goal before the break effectively settled matters.
De Zerbi cut a restless, animated figure as he tried to spark Spurs into life, yet shoulders slumped, duels were lost, and panic replaced poise—there was no sign they believed a comeback was possible.
Conor Gallagher and Lucas Bergvall did not reappear after half-time—though they could fairly argue others might have joined them.
De Zerbi needs to fortify this squad mentally; that kind of steel cannot be purchased.
Yes, it’s only Spurs’ Premier League opener, and even ambitious teams sometimes start with a shocker.
But this felt like a troubling continuation of a cycle of defeats and deflation.
That pattern has overshadowed recent seasons, as it did under De Zerbi’s predecessors—Ange Postecoglou, who at least delivered the Europa League, then Thomas Frank and the fleeting tenure of Igor Tudor.
De Zerbi said he was surprised by both the result and the display, admitting they were not in the right condition and that there could be no excuses as a new project struggled to establish its core principles.
He noted Marcos Senesi, Jan Paul van Hecke and Sandro Tonali were short of peak fitness—something known before kick-off—and stressed the need to improve conditioning, organisation and pressing.
More arrivals may follow, but he refused to lean on that, insisting the starting XI should have been competitive and pointing to Brentford’s on-pitch spirit as the example to emulate.
Fresh faces are fine, but this defeat showed Spurs’ issues run deeper than personnel. De Zerbi must swiftly lay to rest the ghosts of two loss-riddled campaigns.
It’s not about overhauling the squad as much as overturning a culture in which results like this have become routine.