Roberto De Zerbi intends for his stay at Tottenham to be a long-term one, as the Italian looks to stave off a shock relegation from the Premier League.

The former Brighton and Marseille coach signed a long-term contract – reportedly to run for five years – with Spurs earlier this week, after they parted company with Igor Tudor.

He arrives at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to find a Spurs team at one of their lowest ebbs – they are 17th in the Premier League table and just one point clear of the bottom three, ahead of facing Sunderland in his first game in charge on April 11.

The Opta supercomputer currently assigns Spurs a 27.2% chance of dropping to the second tier for the first time since 1976-77.

And with Wolves (100%) and Burnley (99.9%) appearing to be doomed, their main rivals are West Ham (57.3%), Nottingham Forest (8.7%) and Leeds United (6.7%).

Eyebrows were raised at the nature of De Zerbi's contract, which reportedly makes him one of England's highest-paid head coaches, but provided the next seven games go to plan, he intends to be in north London for a long time.

"Hello Tottenham fans, I am very happy to be here with you," he said in a message posted to Spurs' social media channels. 

"For me, it is a very big honour to be here and I'm very proud to be your coach. I want to give my best. I want to stay for a long time in this big club. See you soon."

Spurs are still searching for their first Premier League win of 2026, having played out five draws and eight defeats since the turn of the year.

They are currently enduring the joint second-longest winless run in their league history (13 games), while their return of 30 points from 31 Premier League games represents their lowest tally after 31 matches of any league campaign, along with 1914-15, accounting for 3pts/win all-time.