Big-spending Tottenham suffered an abject 3-0 loss away to Brentford on Saturday in their Premier League opener, but Roberto De Zerbi saw the warning signs long before

Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi has revealed he ‘knew last week’ that his side were in for a reality check against Brentford. Spurs were hammered 3-0 by the Bees and it would’ve been more had Igor Thiago not missed a penalty.

After spending £228million in the summer transfer window and with more signings still to come which will take them to nearly £350m, Tottenham have been tipped to vastly improve on their back-to-back 17th-place finishes in the last two seasons. The result came as a shock to many – but not De Zerbi.

“I knew before the game, I knew from last Saturday when we played against Hoffenheim, we are not at the right point in terms of physical condition for a lot of reasons,” the Spurs boss confessed.

“For the players, they came after the World Cup and they came late for the pre-season in Australia where we had not time to work in the right way, in the best way, but it’s not an excuse.

“Our first 11 today was very young, but it was enough to compete in a different way. We lost too many duels. We didn’t find the right timing to go in the high pressure. I think it’s a sad day for us because I’m disappointed for the result, for the performance, but we have to be good, to analyse well the defeat.”

With four summer signings named in their starting line-up, Tottenham found themselves behind after just 12 minutes, as Keane Lewis-Potter broke the deadlock. Goals from Vitaly Janelt and Michael Kayode either side of half-time put the game to bed, with Thiago hitting the post from the penalty spot on 55 minutes.

Despite the loss, De Zerbi wants his players to stay confident ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie at home to Charlton before hosting Newcastle in the Premier League next Saturday. “We can’t lose the confidence. We can’t lose what we created last season,” the Italian emphasised.

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“We have to improve, yes, we have to put something more than today, individually and collectively, but anyway, be calm, because the project has just started and I think we are working well.

“We have to stay calm and put the focus on the improvement we have to do. I think we are all in the right situation to build something special, maybe not immediately, we need time, but I think we are in a good way.”