Spurs: Pride, belief and captain’s betrayal

It’s boiling in North London. Arsenal has won the Premier League title after 22 years, but Tottenhem is on the verge of relegation. After two straight wins it looked like the mental barrier was put away and that the players finally got their confidence back, but a 1-1 draw against Leeds and a defeat at Chelsea got them into the same old situation – they need a win on the last day of the season. Spurs play at home, but the opponent is not easy – Everton, a team led by former West Ham manager David Moyes and a team which has seven away wins. On top of that, the players and fans were left baffled by their captain’s decision. Cristian Romero is out of the season after damaging knee ligaments in a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland last month, but he won’t be in the stands today.

It’s not that the Argentinian is not capable of standing (or sitting) due to an injury, it’s the fact that he chose to support the other club is what got fans all angry. Romero did not attend the Spurs defeat at Chelsea on Tuesday and instead posted on social media a picture of him on a private jet with his family and sent a message of congratulations to his boyhood club Belgrano after they reached the play-off final of the Argentina championship against River Plate on Sunday in Cordoba. So he will watch Belgrano match and not Tottenham and his actions have caused outrage among the fans even though it happened three days ago. In fact, the pressure was so high, that a couple of hours before the game the news broke out that Romero decided to come back from Argentina and be at the stadium today to support Tottenham.

On top of all that, coach Roberto De Zerbi had to keep focus on the actual game, the preparation, the motivation, but Romero questions just kept coming.

“He can’t change anything, Romero, if he is at the stadium or not. Finally, I have no time to lose energy thinking about other things, we have to be focused just on the game. We have the players good enough to achieve our target. Not all leaders are the same. Ben Davies spoke with me and asked today to stay with us. Tomorrow, we sleep in the lodge in the hotel and he wanted to stay with his team-mates“ said De Zerbi who repated that he had a great relationship with Romero since he arrived at the club.

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But the relegation is like an axe above the club. Next up was De Zerbi’s commitment if Tottenham goes down today.

“Yes, I confirm everything. For me, it's still an honour to be a coach for Tottenham, even if we play for the relegation fight, it's not a problem.I consider football something more than the table, more than the level of the game“ he said.

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Finally, the Italian had a chance to say something about the crucial game against Everton.

“Sunday is the final for Tottenham. Not Bilbao against Man United. The most important game is Sunday. Because last season, they played for a trophy. Now we play for something more important than a trophy. The pride, the history of the club, the dignity are more important than that trophy. Trophies, you can win, you can lose, nothing changes in your life, one trophy more. Most important is to keep dignity, keep the pride. When you are fighting against relegation, the eyes of the players are not like the eyes of the players when you are winning a league, or you are competing like we were at Brighton to achieve European qualification. But if we win this game there is another pride, another emotion, another feeling“ he said.

ENGLAND PREMIER LEAGUE ROUND 38

Sunday

18.00: (1.90) Brighton (4.15) Man.Utd. (3.65)

18.00: (2.40) Burnley (3.40) Wolverhampton (2.95)

18.00: (4.60) Crystal Palace (3.60) Arsenal (1.80)

18.00: (2.90) Fulham (3.75) Newcastle (2.30)

18.00: (1.85) Liverpool (4.05) Brentford (3.80)

18.00: (1.33) Man.City (6.00) Aston Villa (7.50)

18.00: (3.20) Nott.Forest (3.75) Bournemouth (2.10)

18.00: (3.60) Sunderland (3.45) Chelsea (2.05)

18.00: (1.93) Tottenham (3.50) Everton (4.00)

18.00: (1.87) West Ham (3.90) Leeds (3.85)

* odds are subject to change