Thomas Frank gives brutally honest response to Tottenham’s worrying home form

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank has defended his players following their latest home defeat in the Premier League, a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa.

Spurs took an early lead with Rodrigo Bentancur scoring just five minutes into the game, but they failed to capitalise on this strong start. Morgan Rogers managed to equalise for Villa in the 37th minute, marking his first goal in 20 matches.

The second half saw few opportunities until Emiliano Buendia, a substitute for Villa, scored in the 77th minute, adding to Spurs’ home ground woes.

Frank, the new manager, has already experienced two defeats in his first four home league games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, contributing to a disappointing overall record over the past year. This defeat means that Spurs have only managed three victories in their last 18 home league matches.

When questioned about this form, Frank responded: “I hope I can! Maybe it is not that simple. (This) is a game that is a draw. A clear draw and we could have easily won it instead of Villa and then it is a different narrative. So, I look at the performance on the pitch – we did well and I’ll look at the bits we need to improve.”

Adding to Spurs’ troubles, captain Cristian Romero was forced to withdraw from the warm-up due to an adductor issue. Despite this setback, Spurs started strongly with Bentancur scoring from eight yards out after Joao Palhinha headed down Mohammed Kudus’ excellent cross.

Kudus found the back of the net just two minutes afterwards but saw his effort chalked off for offside, whilst Wilson Odobert troubled Emi Martinez before Villa drew level through Rogers, who danced past Xavi Simons and unleashed a curling effort from 20 yards that dipped beautifully into the net.

Mathys Tel wasted a golden opportunity before the break ended, with Odobert then seeing his attempt blocked on the goal-line by Ezri Konsa.

Villa manager Unai Emery responded by introducing Buendia and Ollie Watkins from the bench, and whilst Frank had Lucas Bergvall and Randal Kolo Muani poised for nearly five minutes on the sideline, Spurs were made to pay.

Matty Cash’s exquisite crossfield half-volley was gathered brilliantly by Lucas Digne, who set up Buendia to bend his strike into the bottom corner and seal a fifth straight triumph for the away side.

“I think we performed quite well. Maybe not through the roof,” Frank added. “We gave away what eight shots? Not even a cross more or less. Very, very low XG (expected goals) and (Guglielmo) Vicario didn’t have a save.

“If you said to me before the game ‘they will shoot from there, Rogers and Buendia’, from that situation, I would say, ‘of course, it’s not dangerous’, but fantastic quality shot from Rogers. In those very little moments, they had more quality in the end.”

Villa began the season with a sequence of five league matches without victory, yet Emery continued to demand higher standards from his players despite this emphatic triumph at Tottenham. Emery stated: “Still more to do and still players to increase their level because they are coming after being injured and we have some injured.

“We learn last year, the second half of the season we were performing fantastic and we were with a lot of players in different positions ready to play and helping to play 30 minutes.

“Today is the example. The 30 minutes of Watkins and Buendia, they do a fantastic job. We compete today fantastic and through the quality of the players adding it, we won.”