Tottenham Hotspur sit bottom of the Premier League without a win after five matches, and they have already gone out of the Carabao Cup at the third round stage. This update, published on 30 September 2026, covers the Shearer on Spurs start verdict, following an alarming opening to the season under Roberto De Zerbi.
Alan Shearer has been one of the most prominent voices assessing the crisis. His comments carry weight given his standing as a pundit. He struggles to explain how a squad rebuilt with such heavy investment finds itself at the foot of the table.
Updated position for Tottenham Hotspur
As things stand, Spurs have taken zero points from their first five Premier League fixtures. That run includes the defeat to Aston Villa. The result has since taken on extra significance given the comparisons pundits are now drawing.
The cup exit compounds the problem. Spurs were eliminated in the third round of the Carabao Cup. That leaves De Zerbi with one fewer route to early silverware and one fewer distraction from the league table.
Shearer shocked by Spurs winless start despite massive summer spending
Spurs spent close to £400 million on ten new arrivals during the summer window. Jan Paul van Hecke, Sandro Tonali, Savio and Omar Marmoush arrived among that group. Established names Cristian Romero, Guglielmo Vicario and Djed Spence all left the club.
Shearer says that outlay makes the current position almost impossible to predict. “We should be surprised by Spurs’ start to the season, because I don’t think anyone in football would have said after five games, Spurs are going to be winless and they’re going to be bottom of the league, with the money that they’ve spent, no one could foresee what’s happening to them,” he said.
He went further on the transfer business itself, questioning the value even as he acknowledged De Zerbi got the names he wanted. “I guess De Zerbi went into this summer with a list of players that he wanted and they have spent a fortune perhaps on all those players. I’m not sure the fees warrant the ability, but no one would have expected them to be bottom of the league,” Shearer said.
Why Alan Shearer expects Roberto De Zerbi to keep Spurs up
Shearer on Spurs start does not end in pessimism. He believes there is still enough quality and time in the season for Tottenham to climb clear of danger. He points to Aston Villa’s own recovery as the template.
“I still think they’ll have enough to stay up, they’ll use the Aston Villa situation and what happened to them at the start of last season when I don’t think they won in their first five games and they then managed to climb the league and qualify for Europe again, so they will look at that and think there’s still loads of football to be played which there is but there’s a massive amount of work to be done at Spurs. I had them to finish in the top six this season and I am not sure that that will happen now,” Shearer said.
That comparison matters because Villa’s turnaround came from a similarly grim opening five games last season. Shearer’s reasoning rests on the belief that the quality Spurs have assembled, even at great cost, should eventually tell over a full campaign.
What happens next for De Zerbi and Spurs
Shearer is clear that the pressure on De Zerbi has grown sharply, even if he stops short of predicting the manager’s exit. Shearer set that scrutiny in a wider context, noting that other Premier League managers also face pressure during the international break, before turning back to Tottenham’s own situation: “De Zerbi brought them back from the brink last season and kept them up but now the pressure is massively on. I think it’s a long three weeks for Man United and Michael Carrick, but you can imagine what it’s like for Tottenham who are bottom of the league and have so much to work on,” he said.
Shearer again referenced the scale of the spending when explaining why patience is running thin. “I’ve said many times, that they brought the players in this summer, but they spent an absolute fortune on them. On everyone, I think. I mean, Van Hecke was a lot of money, Tonali was incredible money, Savio, and Marmoush are others as well. It is a long, long three weeks for Tottenham and they simply have to start winning football games when they are back from the international break. All the bigger questions will start to be asked, if not already, if they don’t start winning football games very, very soon,” he said.
For now, De Zerbi’s task is simple to state but hard to complete. He must turn a squad built at huge expense into one that actually wins matches, starting with the first fixture after the international break.
