De Zerbe: The team spirit behind Tottenham's uprising in the English Premier League

Roberto De Zerbe, coach of the English football team Tottenham, believes that the transformation that occurred in the team’s results in the English Premier League is due to the success of his new squad in restoring the spirit of teamwork and forming a cohesive team.

The British news agency (PA Media) reported that Tottenham presented a disciplined performance to achieve victory over Crystal Palace 2-0, with the latter playing most of the match with 10 players, on Saturday evening, achieving 3 consecutive victories in the league for the first time in 616 days.

The team's trip to Marbella last month was the turning point that paved the way for this improvement. After spending 380 million pounds on signing 10 new players during the last transfer period, De Zerbe believes that Tottenham have finally regained their identity as a homogeneous team.

De Zerbe said: “I think we were performing well even before the international break.” He added: “Maybe we did not perform well throughout the 90 minutes, but we played exceptionally well in many parts of the matches. We were not scoring goals, and we conceded a naive goal, and then we lost our energy and morale, as well as the required bond between the players.” He continued: “If we compare Tottenham before and after the international break, we will find that we are now playing one team.”

The growing harmony between Tottenham players has become clear. Which was evident again on Saturday; When the substitutes celebrated wildly with Archie Gray, the scorer of the go-ahead goal. Gray gave another distinguished performance in the right-back position, in the ninth match this season, in which the 20-year-old player started in a position different from his main position.

The Yamaha team decided on Sunday not to go to Qatar next week to participate in the twentieth round of this season’s MotoGP World Championship, due to “the security situation in the Middle East,” according to what the Japanese team said.

The Japanese group explained in a statement: “After its recent assessment of the situation in the Middle East, the Yamaha team did not find sufficient reasons to modify the travel restrictions currently applied at the group level. Accordingly, Yamaha has informed the MotoGP Championship organizing body of its decision not to participate in the Qatar Grand Prix.”

Yamaha stressed that its decision was “independent of the measures taken by MotoGP and the race organisers.” The Japanese manufacturer also stresses that it “remains fully committed to the MotoGP Championship,” and that it “looks forward to returning to competition during the Portuguese Grand Prix.”

The MotoGP group, which organizes the world championship, expressed its “disappointment” about this decision, noting that “Yamaha’s non-participation also has sporting repercussions.” MotoGP stated that talks with organizers in Qatar and safety advisors did not show any reasons to change plans for the event.

Spaniard Mikel Arteta, Arsenal's coach, sparked widespread controversy in English football circles, after he revealed that he kept a huge collection of photos and clips documenting the violations of rival teams' coaches in the technical area, in an attempt to prove the existence of a disparity in the application of arbitration penalties.

According to the British newspaper The Guardian, this step, if it is part of a deliberate strategy to strengthen Arsenal’s feeling that it is being targeted by the referees, could become a dangerous weapon that reflects negatively on the team.

The case began during Arsenal's victory over Everton, when Arteta received his second warning this season for leaving the technical area. Although the Spanish coach admitted that he exceeded the permissible limits, he pointed out that other coaches repeatedly commit the same violation without being subjected to penalties.

Arteta said that he keeps clips and photos documenting one of the competing coaches leaving his technical area 36 times in just 10 minutes, without receiving any yellow card. He added that he is collecting this evidence so that he can rely on it if he is asked to explain his actions.

There are two explanations for Arteta's behavior: the first is that he actually feels there is double standards in arbitration, and the second is that he is deliberately using this issue to reinforce the siege mentality within Arsenal, and to convince his players and fans that the team is being subjected to unfair treatment. The second explanation may be more dangerous. Because it may push the team to focus on arbitration decisions instead of addressing its mistakes.