By Ian KingRoberto De Zerbi’s honeymoon period at Spurs lasted just over an hourIf there was one at all, Roberto De Zerbi’s honeymoon period at Spurs lasted a few seconds over an hour. That’s how long it took Sunderland to find a way through their porous defence last Sunday, and with West Ham United having already picked up three points on the Friday night, the North London club are now in the bottom three following their 1-0 defeat on Wearside, a place they’ve deserved to occupy since about the start of November. The relegation pictureDe Zerbi’s second match now pitches him against the club with whom he fell out with two years ago, Brighton & Hove Albion. Somewhat ominously for him, his former club – who have broadly been a model of inconsistency throughout this season – are in a bit of a purple patch at the moment, having won five of their last six Premier League matches. They’re in 9th place in the table going into the weekend, and they’re only two points short of a Europa League place for next season. De Zerbi was the Brighton manager, the last time Spurs beat themIt’s also been two years since Spurs last beat Brighton in a competitive match, when they won 2-1 at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Last season brought a double for the Seagulls, including a 4-1 away win on the final day of the season which acted as something of a canary in the coalmine for this season’s Spurs calamities, while their meeting earlier this season at the Amex ended in a 2-2 draw.Micky van de Ven needs start proving himself, with a World Cup loomingThe injury to Cristian Romero which now seems likely to leave the Argentinian out of the World Cup puts even more pressure on Micky van de Ven. The Dutchman has had one of the most underwhelming seasons of all Spurs players in 2025/26, and he is playing for a place in the Netherlands squad for the upcoming World Cup. There’s certainly been little to warrant his inclusion in his form this year, but it’s not quite too late to turn that around. At 35 years of age, he seldom plays a full 90 minutes any more, but there’s little question that Danny Welbeck has been Brighton’s star performer this season. With twelve Premier League goals and even calls for him to go to the World Cup with England this summer, Welbeck has been having one of the great Indian summers to a playing career this season, and he can cause even greater damage to an already wounded defence. At this stage, serious injuries are no longer even a surprise for SpursIn the latest instalment of this long-running series, Cristian Romero limped from the pitch at the end of the Sunderland match with a knee injury that will keep him out of the remainder of this season and the World Cup. Kevin Danso will most likely replace him in the centre of their defence. There is one potential bit of good news, that goalkeeper Gugliemo Vicario could return after missing the Sunderland match with a groin injury, although Antonin Kinsky put in a decent shift in his place. Mohammed Kudus, Wilson Odobert, Destiny Udogie, Lucas Bergvall, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ben Davies, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski will also be absent. Like most sensible Premier League clubs, Brighton’s injury list is nowhere near as severe as this. Stefanos Tzimas is out for the season and Adam Webster won’t be ready until the end of the month, and captain Lewis Dunk will be missing suspended after picking up his 10th yellow card of the season. One possible returnee is the ageless James Milner, who missed the trip to Burnley but could be ready again for this match. Time is starting to run out for Spurs to hang onto their Premier League place, but Brighton have Europe on their mindsIf Spurs fans had hoped that West Ham’s win against Wolves dropping their team into the bottom three might have sharpened the players’ resolve a little at Sunderland, they ended up mightily disappointed. There has been growing recognition in recent weeks that the players are a huge part of the problem with their club. When they haven’t been injured, they’ve broadly shown themselves to be a limited set of players running on microscopic amounts of confidence. Those who are already calling this as done and dusted are, of course, being a little premature. There are six games left to play and a couple of wins could have a potentially transformative effect. But the opportunities to steer this listing vessel away from the rocks are diminishing, and it remains as difficult as it has since the new year to see where the win which may galvanise them is even going to come from.Brighton have had a decent last few weeks and, in a congested middle of the Premier League table, still have a shot at securing European football for next season. This, plus a completely natural and understandable desire to put one over on Roberto De Zerbi makes it difficult to predict anything but a positive result for them. But Spurs have a lot to play for and their performance at Sunderland wasn’t completely abysmal, so I’m going to go for a 1-1 draw in this one. The real make or break game for Spurs comes next week away to Wolverhampton Wanderers, but at this stage of the season every point counts, even if one is no longer enough to lift them out of the bottom three.(Cover image from IMAGO)You can follow every game in the Premier League with FotMob this season – featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.Add FotMob as a preferred news source on Google by clicking – here.