“You can’t buy mentality in the transfer market.”Roberto De Zerbi’s analysis of Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-0 defeat by Newcastle United had nothing to do with tactics. Spurs have spent over £300million on eight new signings this summer but the psychological scars that have been inflicted on them over the last few years are taking longer than anybody would like to heal.Spurs finished 17th in back-to-back seasons and have lost 41 of their last 78 top-flight matches. They have suffered 11 defeats at home since the start of last season which is the joint-worst record in the Premier League along with relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers. Since January 2025, Spurs have taken 55 points from 59 league games.Over the last couple of weeks, De Zerbi has spoken about changing the bad habits Spurs’ squad have picked up. Those habits were clear to see after Anthony Elanga opened the scoring for Newcastle and Spurs “lost the confidence”. De Zerbi’s first full season in charge has started off with two league defeats, five goals conceded and none scored.“The reaction was not good enough,” De Zerbi told reporters after the game. “Not the reaction I want to see on the pitch, and I said immediately after the end of the game (to) the players, because when you are building something new, it’s tough, there are problems, the difference is how you want to find the solution of these problems, and the solution is not to put down the head, but to react, because we had 20 minutes again to score one, two or maybe three goals.”Newcastle’s opener was almost an exact replica of a chance they created in the first minute. On both occasions Nico Gonzalez fired a pass to the right wing where full-back Amar Dedic headed the ball towards Elanga. The Sweden international chipped the ball over Antonin Kinsky on the first attempt and Archie Gray cleared it for a corner. The second time Elanga swivelled past his former team-mate Sandro Tonali and fired a left-footed shot into the net via the post. It is a pattern the players and coaching staff should have recognised.Spurs did perform better than in their 3-0 defeat by Brentford before Elanga’s effort in the 62nd minute. Debutant Omar Marmoush kept dropping deep to receive the ball and dribbled directly at Newcastle’s centre-backs Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman. He played a clever reverse pass to Andy Robertson. In the second half, he picked up possession out wide, nutmegged his former Manchester City team-mate Gonzalez and fired a shot which went just past the post. It all fizzled away when Newcastle took the lead.Newcastle’s opening goal ended early signs of positivity for Spurs (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)Substitute Mohammed Kudus added a small dose of unpredictability to Tottenham’s attacks, on his first appearance since January after recovering from a quad injury, but his crossing was poor. Tonali won a free kick which Mathys Tel cannoned over the bar. Marmoush fired a shot straight at Lukas Hornicek when unmarked at the back post, while Dominic Solanke had an effort cleared off the line by Lewis Hall in stoppage time.But Spurs became involved in a few spats, which were an unnecessary distraction. Solanke was frustrated by a tackle from Botman while Pedro Porro had to be separated from Bazoumana Toure. At full time, Porro and Mateus Fernandes confronted Jacob Ramsey. When De Zerbi talks about players reacting badly after conceding, it applies to them losing their cool as well as motivation. There were too many occasions last season where tempers flared but adversity does not always have to lead to a crisis.“It’s the biggest problem, it’s the biggest challenge and it’s the biggest target to find the right mentality,” De Zerbi added.There has been a huge amount of change this summer at Spurs and it is going to take time for a new order to be established. Micky van de Ven, Rodrigo Bentancur and Porro are building up their sharpness after limited involvement in pre-season. Tonali and Fernandes started a competitive game together for the first-time. Savio was unavailable due to muscle fatigue he picked up in training after his superb debut in midweek.Relationships need to be built across the defence with so many new faces. To underline the churn, De Zerbi made five changes to the starting XI after the loss to Brentford, Lucas Bergvall, Marcos Senesi and Conor Gallagher became unused substitutes, and there were a few curious decisions.Porro, who started at right-back behind Lamine Yamal for eventual champions Spain at the World Cup, featured higher up on the wing in front of Gray. Fernandes produced his best performances for West Ham United dropping deep to receive the ball from his centre-backs but was tasked with operating as a No 10. Tonali played either as the right-sided No 8 or as the holding midfielder during his time with Newcastle. The Italy international kept drifting over into pockets of space on the left in the first half to receive chipped passes from Kinsky. Tonali made a few impressive runs from midfield but ended up dribbling the ball into trouble a couple of times.The 7 teams who have the most net spend on PL playersTifo FootballA few players are unsettled ahead of the transfer window closing on Tuesday evening. De Zerbi revealed Richarlison, Kevin Danso and Pape Matar Sarr have all asked to leave. Richarlison started against Brentford while Danso has been a valuable squad member over the last 18 months. The uncertainty will be impacting their team-mates.There is a slightly awkward parallel right now between Spurs and Arsenal in the 2021-22 season which should give supporters encouragement. They were both humbled by Brentford in their opening game. Arsenal lost their first three matches without scoring as, like De Zerbi, Mikel Arteta struggled to integrate new signings after significant investment. Arsenal eventually clicked and finished fifth, two points behind Spurs under then-head coach Antonio Conte. Only two players from Arsenal’s defeat by Brentford, Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Martinelli, started their 5-1 victory over Everton on the final day.Spurs fans will hate that Arsenal are a reference point for them right now but they are the perfect recent example of a team spending heavily and taking a few heavy blows on the way to becoming a cohesive unit. Spurs, though, need to become more resilient for the obstacles ahead.