{"id":80736,"date":"2026-04-20T16:31:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/tottenhams-roberto-de-zerbi-forming-special-connection-with-xavi-simons\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T16:31:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:31:34","slug":"tottenhams-roberto-de-zerbi-forming-special-connection-with-xavi-simons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/tottenhams-roberto-de-zerbi-forming-special-connection-with-xavi-simons\/","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham&#8217;s Roberto De Zerbi forming &#8216;special connection&#8217; with Xavi Simons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\"><span class=\"timestamp \">Apr 20, 2026, 08:52 AM ET<\/span><\/div>\n<p>Tottenham boss Roberto De Zerbi has said he already has a &#8220;special connection&#8221; with Xavi Simons.<\/p>\n<p>Spurs were moments away from moving out of the Premier League relegation zone on Saturday, only to concede a stoppage-time equaliser in a 2-2 draw at home to De Zerbi&#8217;s former club Brighton.<\/p>\n<p>Playmaker Simons created the opening goal for Pedro Porro against the Seagulls and later struck a post before sparking wild celebrations by firing his side back in front with a stunning finish in the 77th minute.<\/p>\n<p>Having operated in a similar position during his playing career, De Zerbi feels he is well placed to get the best out of the Netherlands international.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0420%2Fr1646432_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=570&amp;format=jpg, https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0420%2Fr1646432_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=1140&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0420%2Fr1646432_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=375, https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0420%2Fr1646432_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">Roberto De Zerbi was appointed manager in March.\u00a0<cite>Photo by Marc Atkins\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s lucky to work with me &#8212; not because I&#8217;m good, because I was No. 10,&#8221; De Zerbi told SpursPlay.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What he thinks now, I thought 20 years ago. So, we have a special connection. I have a special connection with all No. 10s I work with.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I love a No. 10. A No. 10 has to understand that he has to score and he has to make assists, not just play to be nice to the people &#8212; goals and assists.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>De Zerbi has picked up one point from a possible six since replacing Igor Tudor after beginning his reign with a 1-0 loss at Sunderland.<\/p>\n<p>Tottenham remain a point from safety but could fall four points behind in the battle for survival, if 17th-placed West Ham win at Crystal Palace on Monday evening.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>Are Tottenham going to be relegated from the Premier League? What stats, charts say<\/strong><br \/>&#8211; <strong>Roberto De Zerbi: Tottenham can win last five Premier League games<\/strong><br \/>&#8211; <strong>Transfer rumors, news: Bayern, Madrid in race to sign Tottenham&#8217;s Sarr<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Spurs return to action at bottom club Wolves on Saturday, still seeking a first league win of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Simons, whose spectacular strike was cancelled out by Brighton substitute Georginio Rutter five minutes beyond the 90, has contributed two goals and five assists in 27 top-flight appearances this term following his \u00a352 million arrival from RB Leipzig last summer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He played very well, a great game,&#8221; De Zerbi said of the 22-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think he can play better and better, because a player like this, he needs to feel confidence from the manager and I stay here to transfer all the confidence he needs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-table\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/48540452\/visualisation\/27638746?2490397\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/27638746\/thumbnail\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"table visualization\"\/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apr 20, 2026, 08:52 AM ET Tottenham boss Roberto De Zerbi has said he already has a &#8220;special connection&#8221; with Xavi Simons. Spurs were moments away from moving out of the Premier League relegation zone on Saturday, only to concede a stoppage-time equaliser in a 2-2 draw at home to De Zerbi&#8217;s former club Brighton. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-transfers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/r1646432_1296x729_16-9.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}