De Zerbi wins his first award, and gives Tottenham a record no rival can match

Roberto De Zerbi has won his first Premier League Manager of the Month award, and added to a Tottenham record.

According to Spurs, he is their 10th different manager to collect the prize, more than any other Premier League club. His October return of 10 points from 12 took Tottenham from bottom of the table into the top half.

The award recognises a turnaround that included victory at Chelsea. November’s defeat at Leeds, however, has already shown why the recovery remains unfinished.

De Zerbi Manager of the Month: the facts

The Premier League confirmed on Friday that De Zerbi beat a strong shortlist. Mikel Arteta, Unai Emery, Xabi Alonso, Marco Rose and Fabian Hürzeler were all in the running, with fans’ votes combined with an expert panel.

It is a first for the Italian. He was nominated twice at Brighton, in January and March 2023, but never took it home. He is also the first Spurs boss to win it since Ange Postecoglou, who won three in a row from August to October 2023, and the club’s tenth different winner overall, as Tottenham pointed out.

How October turned Spurs around

It started with grit rather than style. Spurs went a goal and a man down at Manchester United after Bryan Mbeumo scored and Rodrigo Bentancur was sent off. Dominic Solanke’s stoppage-time leveller rescued a 1-1 draw. That point felt important at the time, and it looks even bigger now.

The first win followed, 3-1 at home to Coventry City after a training camp in Marbella. James Maddison, Omar Marmoush and Ben Davies scored, and Dejan Kulusevski’s return from more than 500 days out lifted the mood further.

Then came the standout result. Spurs won 2-0 at Chelsea in a game that finished ten against ten, with a Mike Penders own goal and a superb solo strike from Mathys Tel. It was only their second league win at Stamford Bridge in 36 years.

They closed the month by beating Crystal Palace 2-0, after Jean-Philippe Mateta was sent off in the 13th minute. Archie Gray and Jan Paul van Hecke both scored from set pieces, and you can relive that one in our Tottenham vs Crystal Palace report.

Where Spurs improved

The numbers tell the story: 10 points from a possible 12, eight goals scored and two conceded. Spurs kept clean sheets against Chelsea and Palace, and the goals came from all over the team rather than relying on one player.

Set pieces chipped in too, with both goals against Palace coming from dead balls. For a side that had gone five league games without a win, finding different ways to score mattered as much as the results themselves.

The test ahead

Spurs fans know the old joke about this award being a curse, and the first game after the month did not help. Tottenham lost 1-0 at Leeds on 7 November, when substitute Noah Okafor scored two minutes after coming on. Spurs had 60 per cent of the ball but managed only five shots, as our Leeds 1-0 Tottenham report shows.

That is the challenge for De Zerbi after the international break. Possession without chances was a problem at times in his Brighton days too. If Spurs can carry October’s sharpness into the winter, this award will look like the start of something rather than a high point.

Follow the race for the top half on our Premier League hub.