Roberto De Zerbi breaks Tottenham out of a jail they should never have been in | Jonathan Wilson

Almost half a century ago, Matthew Engel had a line in this newspaper about Sheffield United going top of the Fourth Division being like hearing a friend had been made head of the prison library: you wanted to congratulate them but really you were wondering what on earth they were doing there in the first place. It was a similar story at Spurs today: for all the understandable glee and relief, even to be in danger of relegation is evidence of things having gone badly wrong. It may be that the fu

Roberto De Zerbi is clearly a manager of great promise – 11 points in seven games may not be earth-shattering, but it is a lot, lot better than what came before – and the injury crisis surely can’t be this bad for a third straight season. Perhaps coming so close to the brink will startle them into decisive action in a way that last season’s fourth-bottom finish, mitigated as it was by the Europa League success, did not. Perhaps there really will come a bracing clarity of vision and they will rise again. The world can change very quickly. It’s only four years ago that Spurs were, for the sixth season in succession, finishing above Arsenal. A season out of Europe, while it will have a negative impact on revenues, can have a remarkable rejuvenating effect. As nervous as Tottenham fans became with news of West Ham’s goals flashing up on phone screens, for a long time it simply didn’t seem plausible that this Everton might score at all, never mind twice. The chaos of injury time, the headers over the bar, Antonin Kinsky’s fine save from Tyrique George, seemed out of keeping with the previous 90 minutes, more a manifestation of Spurs’s anxiety than anything Everton were doing. There was a mix of reactions to Tottenham’s final-day survival, even from their own players. Spurs, as in the defeat by Nottingham Forest and the draw against Leeds, began well and got gradually scratchier but, on this occasion, it didn’t matter: only belatedly did the sponge mallet of Everton’s attack transform into something that might do damage. Some Spurs fans had been doubtful about attending, or even following the game on television or the radio. There was a lot of talk of long walks or gardening, avoiding the anxiety until it was all done , but football is about emotion whether positive or negative; about moments of crisis such as this.

Key points

• Roberto De Zerbi is clearly a manager of great promise – 11 points in seven games may not be earth-shattering, but it is a lot, lot better than what came before – and the injury crisis surely can’t…
• Perhaps coming so close to the brink will startle them into decisive action in a way that last season’s fourth-bottom finish, mitigated as it was by the Europa League success, did not.
• Perhaps there really will come a bracing clarity of vision and they will rise again.
• The world can change very quickly.
• It’s only four years ago that Spurs were, for the sixth season in succession, finishing above Arsenal.