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.
Tottenham have the fifth hardest start to their Premier League season
Using 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.
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BrentfordBrentford
TottenhamTottenham
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TottenhamTottenham
NewcastleNewcastle
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Nottingham ForestNottingham Forest
TottenhamTottenham
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TottenhamTottenham
EvertonEverton
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TottenhamTottenham
Aston VillaAston Villa
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However, 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 season
After 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.