Premier League news: De Zerbi tells Spurs ‘only losers cry’; Carrick savours Liverpool clash

Q: What is the injury status of Dominic Solanke for Tottenham's match against Aston Villa?

Dominic Solanke has been ruled out for the match against Aston Villa due to a hamstring injury.

Q: How many players are currently injured for Tottenham Hotspur?

Tottenham currently has at least eight players injured, including Solanke and Xavi Simons.

Q: What did De Zerbi say about Tottenham's chances of staying in the Premier League?

De Zerbi is confident that Tottenham can avoid relegation and insists that victory over Aston Villa is achievable.

Q: Which players are expected to return to Tottenham's squad for the match against Aston Villa?

Destiny Udogie and Pape Sarr are expected to return to the squad for the match against Aston Villa.

1. De Zerbi: Spurs 'have to play, have to fight' at Villa Park

Roberto De Zerbi has ruled Dominic Solanke out of Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa and is unsure whether the striker will feature again in Tottenham’s battle against relegation. But the manager will not cry over his absence or the broader injury situation, which will deprive him of at least eight others, insisting victory over Villa would not be a “miracle” and doubling down on his belief that the club will stay up.

De Zerbi’s first Spurs win in his third game with them – the 1-0 victory at Wolves last Saturday, which was the team’s first in 16 in the Premier League – was marred by the loss of Solanke to a hamstring problem and Xavi Simons to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.

De Zerbi reported that Guglielmo Vicario was still out while he did not make it sound as though James Maddison would be able to play at Villa, albeit the midfielder would again be among the substitutes for his leadership qualities. On the upside, Destiny Udogie and Pape Sarr should return to the squad. The other injured players are Ben Davies, Cristian Romero, Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus and Wilson Odobert.

The message from De Zerbi remained clear: he has no time for excuses, hard-luck stories or conspiracy theories. It was purely about focusing on the available players and remembering how talented they were.

“The most important challenge now is to silence the voice inside of us, inside the players, the staff and the fans,” De Zerbi said. “This voice can produce negative thoughts. The voice says: ‘We are unlucky, we have too many injuries, we lost Xavi Simons – one of our best players in the last two games – our medical staff is not good enough, the pitch of the stadium is not good, the pitch of the training ground is not good. It is impossible to win two or three games in a row because we have not won too many games in 2026.’

“It is all negative things. And it is rubbish. If Tottenham win in Villa Park, it is not a miracle. We have the quality to win. If Solanke and Xavi are injured, we can play with [Randal] Kolo Muani, Mathys Tel, Richarlison and they are not worse players. They are different as characters but are very good players. We have Pedro Porro, we have Udogie, we have Micky van de Ven, we have [Rodrigo] Bentancur, we have Palhinha, we have [Conor] Gallagher.

“I have heard: ‘It is impossible, we are crying and we are relegated.’ But no. Not yet. We have to die on the pitch and to die on the pitch, we have to lose the game. Before we lose the game we have to play, we have to fight. It is a tough moment but the losers cry. The losers think negative. I don’t want people close to me crying or thinking in different way to me.”

De Zerbi was asked whether Solanke was out for the season. “I don’t know yet,” he said. “For Villa, no, for sure. And then we will see.” Vicario’s continued absence after a hernia operation means that Antonin Kinsky, one of the heroes at Wolves, will keep his place in goal.