Lewis Holtby urges Spurs fans to keep the faith

Trust is notoriously difficult to win and easy to lose, and as Tottenham's Lewis Holtby prepares to face Manchester United after a week of sleepless nights he knows his team have it all to do to get their fans back onside.

Every side suffer defeats but, as the Spurs manager, Andre Villas-Boas, said last week, a 6-0 loss happens "only once every 10 or 20 years". For Tottenham it arrived at Manchester City last Sunday as Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo ripped their previously watertight defence apart.

Holtby admits it was "not easy for the head" to take such a defeat, and their mindset could hardly have been helped by a long trip to Tromso in the Arctic Circle where, at this time of year, the sun does not rise and darkness reigns for 21 hours a day. Manchester United will have no sympathy, of course, as they look to maintain their fine record at White Hart Lane – a ground where they last lost on the final day of the 2000-01 season.

But, as Holtby points out, Spurs' first battle is not with Wayne Rooney or Robin van Persie, it is to convince their supporters they are worthy of unconditional support. "It's hard to sleep [after a defeat such as that at City]," said Holtby. "It's not like we just move on with it, it's hard, it's not easy for your head. You get smashed by the press, people say what is going to happen, and it's not good for the club or the people behind the scenes.

"No one doesn't care. Everyone is more motivated now to get a result and not have a 'mare like last Sunday. The team has a very good spirit, we are up for it and that day we had won't happen again. I feel sorry for the fans. I know how they feel, but as a footballer you don't lose because you want to, or want to concede six goals. But a day like that is unstoppable at some point.

"We have the chance to make it better on Sunday. If we give everything and fight to the last minute we can get the fans back on our side again. If the fans see we are fighting and that we want to produce something, then everything is forgiven."

If they do produce something then it could go a long way to keeping Villas-Boas in a job. The Portuguese has been under huge pressure since the loss at City, and his mood will not have been improved by a bizarre spat in which a Tromso fan accused the manager of having him thrown out of the ground for chanting: "You're getting sacked in the morning".

But Holtby refuses to consider a change in manager, repeatedly insisting that collective responsibility is the only way a side with just nine goals in 12 Premier League games will ride out the current crisis. "The manager's future? I don't want to talk about that," said the German international. "We don't listen to that. We are one group, we fight together. What happens behind the scenes is not our job.

"We fight together to get results and change it round, as on the pitch we are responsible for what happens. Everyone has to give 110 per cent and fight. I would say it's better to lose one game 6-0 than six games 1-0. Could that result be a good thing in the end? It could be. I hope so. I hope we make that bad feeling stop by getting a positive result. Everyone knows what happened last Sunday so we are trying to go at the other Manchester side with everything we have got – full power."

These are two sides in drastically different form, though. Tottenham's team watched United's 5-0 win in Leverkusen, though some wisely turned off when the score was 2-0.

"Unfortunately for German football it wasn't the best," said Holtby. "If you see that Leverkusen are second in the Bundesliga and see the quality difference, that shows how strong the Premier League is. United were really strong, but Leverkusen didn't create anything. It will be a different match at the Lane. We have to give everything to the task."