Although Tottenham Hotspur fans like to poke fun at Arsenal for still not winning major silverware despite the hype around Mikel Arteta, all banter aside, it is remarkable how far the Gunners have lapped Spurs in terms of competitiveness over the last five years when, in the Mauricio Pochettino era, Tottenham were the ones competing for Premier League and even Champions League titles.
Now, Arsenal are the ones regularly in Premier League title contention and into the Champions League semifinals, beating up on such dignitaries of the competition as Real Madrid, whereas Spurs are a team playing closer to the level of a club in the bottom half of the Premier League table.
And the appointment of Thomas Frank has not, as many had expected and were sold directly by the club, raised the competitive level of Spurs. If anything, after watching Spurs get dominated 4-1 by Arteta and Arsenal couple of weeks ago, it honestly feels like Spurs are sinking further back.
Tottenham have to be real about Mikel Arteta
But the refrain being fed again by the club to the fans is that Tottenham need to give Frank more time. They are drawing parallels to the time Arsenal have given Arteta as their manager and how he has taken them from the doldrums of irrelevancy to the cusp of winning it all, and now, in 2025/26, they have been the best team in the Premier League thus far.
As much as Tottenham fans, again, like to make fun of Arteta and Arsenal, even the biggest homers in the fan base have to admit the clear truth that Frank is no Arteta. Maybe he can form a cogent tactical plan and identity, and there have been positive signs in his tenure despite some of the horrid lows, including that North London Derby loss. He did, after all, destroy Manchester City and go toe to toe with defending Champions League winners PSG in his very first game.
The thing is, Frank is not Arteta. He does not have any semblance of a tactical plan or clear vision, and Arteta did have a clear vision and a level of discipline and class he brought to Arsenal from a get go. We have not seen that, we have not seen real progress, and we have not seen any sort of impetus for a buy in from the fans that has been created by Frank. Tottenham fans have to fear that Spurs are giving Frank time for the sake of giving him time because they are afraid of blowing through another manager, conflating this with the prudence Arsenal showed to a better manager in Arteta.