Are De Zerbi's Spurs finally finding consistency? Three straight Premier League wins say maybe

Thirteen minutes into Saturday's game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta was sent off for an ill-judged lunge at Micky van de Ven. From there, Tottenham made the afternoon their own, and by the end they had a third successive Premier League win, something they had not managed in almost 21 months.

Archie Gray and Jan Paul van Hecke scored the goals in a convincing victory. It followed the first league win of Spurs' season, at home to Coventry City, and then a standout result at Chelsea, only Tottenham's second league win at Stamford Bridge in 36 years. The last time they strung three league wins together was February 2025, more than 600 days ago.

The numbers around the run show how lean the stretch before it was. Three wins is as many as Spurs had in their previous 26 league games combined, a span in which they drew 10 and lost 13, reaching back to the middle of last season. It is also their first pair of back-to-back home league wins in two years. The consistency of recent seasons, as chief football writer Phil McNulty puts it, was the consistency of regular defeats, including two successive 17th-place finishes. The win lifts them into the top half of the table.

The mood before kick-off, shaped by that history, was that a struggling Palace represented a banana skin rather than an opportunity. Spurs took the gift of Mateta's red card and made the most of it. They had 34 shots and faced two, a difference of 32 that is the biggest against any opponent since Opta's records began in 2003-04. Across the league, only Liverpool have matched it since, with 36 shots to Wolverhampton Wanderers' four in May 2024. Tottenham also held 79.4% of possession, their second highest in a Premier League match, behind the 80.2% against Newcastle United in August 2019.

The summer spending is starting to look more justified. Sandro Tonali, a £100m arrival from Newcastle, and Mateus Fernandes, an £85m signing from West Ham, both began slowly, and head coach Roberto de Zerbi had asked for patience. Tonali began to come to life against Coventry and was pivotal here with his running power, physicality and creation. Fernandes was lively throughout, always looking for the pass that could make a difference. Dejan Kulusevski, back after a long injury absence, again got a warm reception and gave a lively cameo off the bench, forcing a fine save from Palace keeper Dean Henderson. In all, about £300m was spent in the summer.

Palace, for their part, battled with ten men and never looked as though they had given up on head coach Pierre Sage. But they are in the bottom three with two wins from nine league games, and Sage is likely to face growing scrutiny.

De Zerbi told Match Of The Day he was pleased with the passion and focus his side showed, and with their reaction when they lost the ball. He felt they could have scored more and wants them to be nastier in the final third, especially in finishing. He also tempered the celebration. Tottenham must be ambitious, he said, but cannot forget where the club stood in the table two weeks ago, and three in a row is not enough. After the international break, he said, the squad spoke honestly and decided to change the mood quickly, because in football you cannot ask for time. Nothing has changed, in his view, except the mood, the spirit and the relationship with the players, which are totally different.

For now the curve points upward. What to watch is whether Tonali and Fernandes keep building and whether the finishing sharpens, since De Zerbi has made clear he wants a fourth win to follow.