De Zerbi's Spurs Begin Premier League Journey Against Brentford
Roberto De Zerbi walks into his first full Premier League season at Tottenham with a simple brief: no more flirting with disaster.
He dragged Spurs away from the relegation trapdoor in 2025-26. Now comes the harder part – proving that escape was a turning point, not a stay of execution. The first test is a tricky one: Brentford away, under the lights at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday at 5.30pm.
Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League will carry it live in the UK, with BBC Radio 5 Live on commentary. For a season opener, it already feels loaded.
De Zerbi’s rebuilt Spurs step into the spotlight
Tottenham have thrown money at the reset. About £237 million has gone into reshaping a squad that looked broken for long stretches of last season. This is De Zerbi’s team now, in both style and personnel.
Jan Paul van Hecke, Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and Sandro Tonali are all in line for competitive debuts. That is a new defensive spine, a new left flank and a marquee midfielder dropped straight into the engine room.
Tonali, in particular, will draw the cameras. He scored 16 minutes into his Premier League bow for Newcastle and has three goals in five previous outings against Brentford. He has already impressed in pre-season; he looks ready to take ownership of this midfield from day one.
There are caveats. Matheus Fernandes has carried a calf problem through pre-season and is only expected to make the squad. Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie did not feature at all over the summer and are major doubts.
Pedro Porro has only just returned to training after a successful World Cup and may have to accept a place on the bench. James Maddison, still being eased back from an ACL injury, has played just 45 minutes across all the friendlies. De Zerbi cannot lean on him for a full shift yet.
Mohammed Kudus remains out, not seen since January because of a thigh issue. He is close, but not close enough for this weekend. A move for Manchester City’s Savinho is also still unresolved.
That opens the door for 16-year-old Mikey Moore to be handed a start on the right wing. It would be a bold call, but De Zerbi is not known for timidity when it comes to attacking talent.
Up front, Dominic Solanke is back in training after an ankle problem, yet Richarlison is still expected to lead the line. Behind them, the options are thin: Xavi Simons, Wilson Odobert and Dejan Kulusevski are all ruled out and “some way” from returning.
This is a new-look Spurs, but not yet a complete one.
Brentford steady, ambitious and dangerous at home
While Tottenham were fighting the drop, Brentford were quietly thriving. Under Keith Andrews they finished ninth last season, matching their joint-highest Premier League placing and reinforcing their status as one of the division’s most stable operations.
They open at home, in familiar surroundings, and they will fancy it.
There are problems at the back. Sepp van den Berg is out for the opening two months with injury, leaving Kristoffer Ajer and Nathan Collins as the likely centre-back pairing. Antoni Milambo is still sidelined after the ACL injury he picked up on international duty last October.
But the club-record signing is ready. Mamadou Sangare should go straight into the starting XI, anchoring a midfield trio with Vitaly Janelt and Mathias Jensen. That gives Brentford a strong, balanced core – work-rate, passing range, and a bit of bite.
New arrivals Jannik Schuster, Jaidon Anthony and Callum Wilson are all expected to make the matchday squad. They might have to wait for starts, but they give Andrews real variety off the bench.
Up front, Igor Thiago will carry the goal threat again. His World Cup may have disappointed, yet he returns from a 22-goal Premier League season and remains Brentford’s reference point in attack.
A fixture that refuses to separate
History suggests this might be tight. Tottenham may have endured a grim league campaign last year, but they still took four points from Brentford – a 2-0 win at home in December and a 0-0 draw away on New Year’s Day, both under then-manager Thomas Frank.
The Gtech has not been a venue for decisive outcomes in this fixture. Four of the five Premier League meetings there have ended level, including two 2-2 draws. The pattern is clear: Brentford and Spurs tend to cancel each other out in west London.
That record shapes the market. Brentford are priced at 6/4 to start 2026-27 with a home win. Tottenham, with all their new faces and unanswered questions, are 15/8 to take the points. The draw sits at 11/4 – and it is hard to ignore.
With De Zerbi committed to front-foot football and Andrews’ side well-drilled and ambitious, a stalemate does not necessarily mean a dull one. A draw with both teams scoring, at 7/2, reflects the sense that neither defence is fully settled and both attacks have match-winners.
Tonali, at 8/1 to score anytime, carries obvious appeal given his record against Brentford and his pre-season form. Mathys Tel, one of Spurs’ standout performers in the warm-up games with a goal and three assists in five outings, is 9/5 to score or assist.
On the other side, Thiago is 11/8 to score at any time. With his movement and penalty-box instincts, he will test a Tottenham back line still learning each other’s habits.
Early questions, early answers
This is only matchday one, but it already feels like a measuring stick. Has De Zerbi’s spending spree given Spurs a platform to climb back towards the top half, or just a more expensive version of last season’s uncertainty? Can Andrews push Brentford from solid top-half side to genuine European contender?
At the Gtech on Saturday evening, those ambitions stop being theory.
