Tottenham came through 5-1 against Charlton at home on Wednesday night, and the scoreline was about right. Second-round EFL Cup opposition from the Championship — one division below the Premier League — was always going to be outmatched, and Spurs delivered what was expected: comfortably, professionally, and without any of the chaos that defined last season's cup runs under different management. But here is the thing that matters: this came four days after a 3-0 opening-day hammering at Brentford, where De Zerbi's new system looked underbaked and the midfield looked lost. A cup romp against Championship opposition doesn't erase that.
Context matters. Charlton, rebuilt after their promotion to the second tier, are organised enough and clearly coached with intent, but they still operate at a materially lower level than Premier League football. Spurs were always expected to win and win well here. That they did so without drama is a baseline requirement, not a gold star. What you want to use a match like this for is minutes, confidence, and a chance for the system to breathe against opponents who can't punish you if you lose the ball. Charlton gave Spurs all of that.
The one genuine criticism you can level at the performance is the delivery into the box. Spurs created enough, moved the ball reasonably well across the pitch, but there were repeated moments where the final ball — crosses, cut-backs, driven passes into the area — lacked the authority or the precision that De Zerbi's system is eventually going to demand. When you build through the thirds the way he asks, you are generating situations that should produce high-quality deliveries into the penalty area. Too often on the night, those moments arrived and fizzled. Whether that is a fitness-and-familiarity issue at this stage of the season, or a genuine gap in the squad's creative depth out wide, remains to be seen.
Yet here is the counterpoint: Spurs still scored five. Solanke, Danso, Moore, and Savio (twice) all found the net. The volume was there even when the quality of individual delivery was patchy. That tells you something about the attacking intent being built into the structure — positions being taken, runs being made, the general architecture of De Zerbi's offensive patterns being understood — even if the sharpest edge hasn't yet been honed. Early-season cup football against lower-league opposition is exactly the environment in which rough edges are supposed to be smoothed. File the delivery issue as something to watch, not something to panic about.
The two standout performances from the night are Mikey Moore and Savio, and they point in different directions.
Moore's goal was the better of the two narratives. He is still a teenager, developing at pace, and there have been games this season where he has shown glimpses without the decisive moment to cement them. On Wednesday he produced exactly that — a strike hit with real authority, a finish that came from conviction rather than good fortune. Young attacking players need those moments to feel the ball hit the net off a shot they meant. Moore got that here, and in a season where Spurs are clearly building something with space for younger players to develop within the squad structure, that kind of confidence injection matters. He looked assertive throughout, not like a player tentatively asking for permission to perform.
Savio did not look like a player finding his feet. He looked like a player who already knows what he is doing and is now just getting comfortable with the specific details of a new environment.
Savio was a different kind of highlight entirely. He signed for Tottenham from Manchester City in an £85m deal the day before this match and came off the bench in the second half, where he promptly scored twice — one a clinical finish cutting onto his left foot, one via a deflection. Where Moore was exciting because of what it might mean for his trajectory, Savio was exciting because of what it suggests about where he already is. He was dynamic and assertive from the moment he came on, driving at defenders with directness and a physical confidence that you do not always see from wide players in their first run of games at a new club. He is not arriving and asking the game to slow down for him — he is moving at his own pace and expecting the opposition to adjust. That is a hallmark of a player who has belief embedded in his game, and it matters because De Zerbi's system demands a lot from wide players. They have to press intelligently, combine quickly, and also threaten the space in behind when the moment is right. Savio, on this evidence, looks genuinely equipped for all three.
Zoom out, and the broader picture is quietly encouraging — yet incomplete. This is a Spurs side that, for the first time in a while, looks like it has a coherent idea of how it wants to play. De Zerbi's imprint was legible in the buildup patterns, in the way the back four pushed high, in the goalkeeper's involvement in the first phase of play. With Sandro Tonali offering that midfield base, Mateus Fernandes adding legs and technical quality, and a defensive unit that includes Jan Paul van Hecke, the structural signatures are there. But Brentford, four days earlier, showed what happens when that structure faces genuine Premier League pace and pressure: Spurs conceded three times in a half-hour spell and never recovered. Moore's confidence and Savio's two goals are real positives. They are not, however, an answer to what went so badly wrong in the actual test. That question gets answered in the matches ahead — and they matter far more than any cup run.