The difficulty of Tottenham’s first five Premier League fixtures has been ranked against the other 19 clubs by a data analysis website.23 Tottenham players have reported for pre-season training, having been pictured at Hotspur Way over the last few days.Spurs have just over a week to prepare for their first pre-season friendly of the summer, with the Lilywhites set to take on MK Dons in a behind-closed-doors friendly.The new campaign kicks off exactly a month on from the clash against MK Dons, with Roberto De Zerbi’s men set to begin their season trip to Brentford.Photo by SpursWebTottenham have the fifth hardest start to their Premier League seasonUsing the Opta Power Rankings, the difficulty of each Premier League team’s opening schedule has now been quantified, and the numbers don’t make for pretty reading for Tottenham.Spurs play Brentford, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, Everton and Aston Villa in their first five matches, which, on paper, does not seem extremely hard. Saturday 22nd August Premier League BrentfordBrentford17:30TottenhamTottenham Saturday 29th August Premier League TottenhamTottenham17:30NewcastleNewcastle Saturday 5th September Premier League Nottingham ForestNottingham Forest15:00TottenhamTottenham Saturday 12th September Premier League TottenhamTottenham17:30EvertonEverton Saturday 19th September Premier League TottenhamTottenham12:30Aston VillaAston VillaHowever, Opta have crunched the numbers and have revealed that Tottenham’s first five fixtures have an average difficulty rating of 92.2, making it the fifth most difficult start across the Premier League.According to the data analysis platform, only Bournemouth, Sunderland, Coventry City and Brighton have a more difficult start to the season than the Lilywhites.Roberto De Zerbi is setting his sights very high next seasonAfter two back-to-back 17th-placed finishes, Tottenham have flexed their financial muscle this summer and are undertaking a massive rebuild.According to reports, De Zerbi privately believes that Spurs can challenge for Champions League qualification next season.While that may seem like a steep ask for a club which barely avoided relegation last season, the North Londoners do have the luxury of one game a week next season, having failed to qualify for Europe.READ MORE: Tottenham reject three approaches for academy star as bids of over £10m are discussedThe post How difficult Tottenham’s start to the Premier League season is compared to rivals appeared first on Spurs Web.