Manchester United will look to continue their excellent form on the road when they take on Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League
Martin Keown has called out Thomas Frank for walking onto the pitch following Tottenham Hotspur's defeat to Chelsea. The Dane marched onto the field only to be snubbed by Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence.
Frank downplayed the incident in his post-match press conference, and he later claimed to have accepted an apology from the duo. Red mist descended over north London last weekend, with the humiliating defeat to Enzo Maresca's side highlighting the Lilywhites' poor home record in the Premier League.
Spurs have managed just three victories in their last 19 Premier League matches on home turf. Ange Postecoglou coached wins over Manchester United in February and Southampton in April.
Frank kicked off the new season with a commanding 3-0 home victory against Burnley. The Dane hasn't celebrated a home league win since, with Tottenham suffering defeats to Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Chelsea, while sharing the points with Wolves.
The Spurs boss will be desperate to fix this worrying pattern when he faces Ruben Amorim on Saturday afternoon. Speaking to talkSPORT, Keown addressed the north London outfit's problem.
As quoted by football.london, the Arsenal legend said: "It seems strange that Spurs are struggling to win a home game. I think it's only one win in five. Away from home, they've been quite magnificent.
"I've just sat down in the last hour and watched the game last week against Chelsea, and honestly, stop-start, no intensity, not pressing from the front. Thomas Frank, I've been impressed with him. There was an incident after the game where the players refused to shake his hands.
"I'm not even sure Thomas Frank should've been on the pitch at that point because that might've worked at Brentford, but when you're playing against Chelsea, their nemesis team, isn't it for Spurs – they denied them from winning the league all those years ago.
"He probably shouldn't have been there. They were hurting, and rightly so. I like Thomas Frank, but there's a lack of intensity at home, which they're suffering from at the moment."
Manchester United have been in excellent form, winning four of their last six matches. Amorim was named manager of the month in October for his efforts, while Bryan Mbeumo scooped up the player of the month award.
The red Devils have risen to eighth in the Premier League, with just two points separating them from Manchester City in second place. Keown added: "We have to say it's an improvement.
"Finally, the players are taking on board what the manager is asking them to do. [Matheus] Cunha and Mbeumo, the amount of work that they're doing is absolutely ridiculous.
"They retreat to the edge of their own box. They're able to get three players on the sides. And, also, what's happening is, if you look at Luke Shaw, he'll come out now from the back-three to go and press, and Amad on the right will form a back-four.
"So, there's a lot of information for those players. It seems to have taken them a hell of a long time, but now you look at the number of chances that they're creating.
"If you look at what happened to Arsenal at the start of the season, they had eight shots on target against Arsenal. I think since then, it's maybe eight from all the opponents that Arsenal have played since.
"So, that gives you an idea that this is a Manchester United team that is improving, but there's still some way to go."