Tottenham are two points from safety with just four matches of their nightmare campaign remaining as relegation looms over the side.
Spurs have won two of their past four Premier League matches against Villa but beaten 2-1 courtesy of two excellent goals from outside the box by Morgan Rogers and Emiliano Buendia last time the two sides met.
Tottenham must not listen to the voices in their head
De Zerbi, who picked up the club first win in 2026 against Wolves last week, first opened up on the mental side of relegation fight which will weigh heavily on the squad.
"Listen, I want to be clear one time. The most important challenge now is to silence the voice inside of us, inside of the players, inside the staff, the fans.
"This voice produces negative thoughts and the voice says we are unlucky, we have too many injuries. We lost Xavi Simons and he was in the last two games one of the most important players for us. Our medical staff is not good enough, the pitch of the stadium is not good, our training pitch is not good. Winning two or three games in a row is impossible because we hadn't won a game in 2026. I think it’s all negative things and it's rubbish.
"I want to keep the focus on ourselves and the quality of my players. We go to play against one of the best teams in this moment Premier League but if Tottenham win at Villa Park it's not a miracle. Maybe we lose but we have the quality to win this game. It’s not a miracle. We have to be positive."
De Zerbi has belief despite relegation looming
This match takes place in between Aston Villa's two-legged Europa League semi-final with Nottingham Forest which may given Tottenham the edge as Villa may rest their top players.
Spurs haven't won at Villa in their last two visits and as pressure mounts, De Zerbi says he believes football can sometimes be too negative as he tries to instil belief in the side.
"I want to be realistic - it's different positive. Not positive because there is the sun, Italian weather, no no, I want to be realistic for that. I feel this pressure to change the perspective - the same perspective you can see in a different way. One way is we are unlucky, we are at the bottom of the table and the other perspective but we play with (lists a number of fit players)."
"Yes. We lost a lot of injuries, players, we lost two points with Brighton and in Sunderland we conceded one stupid goal and didn't deserve to lose the game, just in my time.
"There is just one way if you want to have no regrets in the future, you have to remove everything from our heads, from our memories and to take one game per game, one training per training and to find the right organisation, confidence and to play showing our qualities."