Roberto De Zerbi's own comments about Tottenham's DNA have come back to bite him - they are still yet to replace the goal scoring void left by Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, writes MATT BARLOW

For a club synonymous with Harry Kane and Jimmy Greaves, Tottenham's ongoing quest for a Premier League goal is an embarrassment.

Greaves, whose 357 English top-flight goals remain a record 55 years after his playing career ended, once joked about suffering a goal drought. 'The worst 15 minutes of my career,' he said.

Kane, the modern equivalent, who beat Greaves to become the club's all-time top scorer and was in overdrive at Bayern Munich last season, has scored more goals (42) than Spurs (35) in 2026.

Roberto De Zerbi knows this rich history only too well. Back in April at his first press conference as Spurs boss, he spoke of his aim to recreate the thrills of Ange Postecoglou's first season.

'The DNA of this club… is to find the goal, to score,' declared De Zerbi and yet here he is five months on with numbers conspiring against him.

Spurs have failed to find the net in their first four Premier League games of this season with the clock ticking towards seven hours.

The 47-year-old Italian has never known anything like it.

'No never,' he conceded ahead of the visit of Aston Villa, on Saturday, the last chance before an extended international break. 'I conceded too many goals maybe but (problems) to score, no.'

Quite how Thomas Frank was able to get through an otherwise excellent shift on Match of the Day last Saturday without fielding a single question on goal-shy Spurs is a mystery.

Frank was jeered out of N17 with his team in freefall in February, having been criticised for extreme caution and over-reliance on set pieces for goals, and taunted by Spurs fans singing 'Boring, Boring Tottenham'.

De Zerbi swept in with two years of fluent football at Brighton fresh in the mind, only to run into similar problems once relegation had been averted.

What are your thoughts on that Thomas? Surely, Thomas has pertinent thoughts on that.

Frank hit trouble when he loosened his trademark solid defensive structure in search of more creativity, then found his team leaking goals at an alarming rate, then was floored by an injury crisis and did not recover.

Spurs spent big on reinforcements at the back and in midfield, which will help, but there is still no reliable source of goals to replace the void left by Kane and Son Heung-min in recent years.

Instead, only the hope Omar Marmoush or Savio, signed for a combined cost of £135million, might rediscover their prolific form from days before Manchester City.

Or Dominic Solanke might regain full fitness and stay fit and have a season like he once had at Bournemouth. Or Mohamed Kudus, James Maddison, Mykhailo Mudryk or Dejan Kulusevski might return from their long absences and solve the puzzle.

Of the eight Premier League goals scored under De Zerbi, two came from Joao Palhinha, now at Benfica, and two from Richarlison, now firmly out in the cold, a one-man sideshow having been omitted from the squad because he asked to leave and then refused all offers.

One came from Xavi Simons, in the squad at Richarlison's expense despite a serious knee injury expected to rule him out until next year.

The others have been scored by Mathys Tel, Conor Gallagher and Pedro Porro. Tel, goalless in 457 minutes, started the first three games of this season only to be dropped after a stalemate at Nottingham Forest when Spurs did not have a shot on target.

Someone at the club must be wondering about the wisdom of selling Will Lankshear, a 21-year-old centre forward, who has scored eight in ten games since joining Middlesbrough for £20m in July.

But De Zerbi is not. 'No,' said the Spurs boss when asked if it might go down as a mistake. 'Solanke is a good player. Marmoush is a good player. The Richarlison situation changed in the last five days and was not my decision. Three strikers, how many strikers do you want? I think three strikers are enough.'

Instead, he puts this drought down to 'coincidence' and promised to figure it out. 'Sometimes you have to change everything, sometimes you have to improve what you are doing and sometimes you have to stay calm. We are working to improve and be better but also we have to stay calm because with our performances we could have more than two points.'

Former Spurs favourite Rafael van de Vaart has a less flattering view. 'I can't even bear to watch them anymore,' fumed Van de Vaart on the Dutch podcast 'Rondo'. 'I find Tottenham truly awful to watch. When you spend that much money on those players, I find it truly incredible.'

De Zerbi bristled when asked before Tuesday's Carabao Cup defeat at Liverpool if his players had been doing extra shooting practice. 'What do you think?' the Italian replied. 'We are doing it.'

There have been flickers of progress. De Zerbi pointed out 'nine clear chances' at Anfield and spoke of the need for 'a click' whether that is a slice of fortune to secure a win and instill confidence or a combination of players who can find the right chemistry.

Time is on his side. It is September with 34 fixtures to play and no European competition – and no Carabao Cup now either – to interfere with his work on the training ground.

These opening bars of the season can be deceptive.

Four games into last season, Spurs were third with nine points and eight goals scored and Frank had been acclaimed for installing the tactical flexibility absent under Postecoglou.

At the same stage of last season, Aston Villa were next to bottom with two points and no goals, identical to Spurs now. Unai Emery's team ended up in fourth and won the Europa League, their best season this century.

Before Villa's salvage operation none of the previous four teams of the Premier League era who failed to score in their opening four games were relegated either.

Newcastle in 2005/06 finished seventh. Swansea in 2011/12 and Crystal Palace in 2017/18 finished 11th and Sheffield Wednesday 1994/95 finished 13th.

Spurs and Coventry are newcomers to this slow-to-score roll of dishonour.

Villa have found the net this season albeit just once – Alysson against Forest – and are a point down on the same stage last year.

There are mitigating factors. Emery has been stripped of six of the starting XI from the Europa League final, plus key staff members and are committed to a major rebuilding operation.

Millions can be spent but there are no guarantees. Spurs targeted players with Premier League experience but did not target Premier League goals. In Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers, Villa lost Premier League goals. They scored 26 between them last season.

Like De Zerbi, Emery has a heavy workload ahead and will hope his methods can revive Nicolas Jackson to his pre-Chelsea form or conjure something where others could not from the raw talent of Alejandro Garnacho or nurture the expensive potential of Johan Manzambi or Ibrahim Mbaye.

They are two great clubs woven together by different narrative threads but Villa will be keen to avoid the same post Europa League nosedive into a relegation scrap as Spurs.