It has not been an easy or enjoyable last few months for Tottenham Hotspur. But after their last game of an exhausting 2025, there is one small thing to cling onto.
One game from the halfway point of the season, Spurs are top of the away league table. This was their fifth away league win under Thomas Frank. With two other away draws, that puts them on 17 points from nine away games, with a better goal difference than Aston Villa, and more goals scored than Arsenal.
No, there is no trophy for this, and Spurs still have 10 away league games left this season. But it is a reminder that for all the sluggish, ponderous performances so far, and all the understandable frustration from the crowd, there are at least some areas where Frank’s Spurs are making clear measurable progress.
This win over Crystal Palace was a case in point.
The 2022 World Cup final it was not. This was an ugly slog between two tired teams, neither of them showing much desire to get on the ball or do anything much with it. Palace largely just wanted to hit Spurs on the break. Tottenham wanted to sit in, wait, go long and then hope to make the most of a set-piece or a counter. The ball spent so much time in the clouds it came down with frost on it. If you were looking for quality, style, imagination, creativity or excitement, then you came to the wrong place.
And yet, for the fifth time on the road this season, Frank’s plan worked. After a few early scares, Tottenham shut down Palace’s transitions. When they moved the ball forward quickly, they caused problems. And they took the lead from a set piece: Pedro Porro hit a deep corner, Randal Kolo Muani won the first header, Richarlison the second, and then Archie Gray nodded the third header in.
Once Tottenham had the lead, they were happy to play out time and wait for opportunities on the break. Richarlison had a second disallowed for a narrow offside call, having had the same experience in the first half. Wilson Odobert, who gave Spurs exactly what they needed when he came on, hit the post from the edge of the box. On another day — as Frank said afterwards — they could have scored four.
Some wins this narrow can be ascribed to luck, and certainly Spurs rode theirs. Palace had enough chances in the second half to equalise or even win the game. And yet you could not say that this win was entirely random. In fact, it was a continuation of a pattern we have seen from Spurs under Frank, whether you like watching it or not.
When Tottenham went to West Ham in September, there was little in the game until Pape Matar Sarr headed in a Xavi Simons corner. Spurs then picked West Ham off and won 3-0. When they went to Everton in October, Mickey van de Ven opened the scoring from a Mohammed Kudus corner that Rodrigo Bentancur headed back across goal. Spurs won that game 3-0 too.
Throw in the Manchester City and Leeds United wins and you can see the outline of a plan. Frank admitted on Sunday evening that this was not Spurs’ best away performance of the season, but one where they showed the qualities required. “The players really understood what type of game we were facing,” he said. “The effort, the character and the defending side of the game gave us a 1-0 win. There have been other very good away wins where we have been more dominant.”
Even in the 2-2 away draws at Brighton and at Newcastle, Spurs showed that same spirit to keep fighting back and to stay in the game. For a team who often used to fold in away games and not do the basics right, that is not nothing.
On New Year’s Day, Spurs go to Brentford and it would not be a big surprise to see another game like this: low on quality, big on set pieces, endless stoppages, with every chance that the most organised, efficient, disciplined team will win it. Six days after that they go to Bournemouth — four points from their last nine — and maybe Spurs will be able to execute the same plan there too.
But even if Spurs keep grinding these wins out, this will not be what determines the success or failure of Frank at Tottenham. Everyone knows that he can organise a team, teach them how to exploit opposition weaknesses, improve their set pieces. This was Spurs’ ninth set-piece goal of the season and Frank said afterwards it was “low-hanging fruit”.
The real question for 2026 is whether Frank can get this squad playing football vaguely resembling what the fans want to see. Particularly at home. Because while no one has a better away record than Tottenham this season, only Burnley, West Ham United and Wolves have been worse at home. And Spurs’ reactive, minimalistic style, which can trip teams up on the road, has not yet looked remotely sufficient to light up the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The qualities that make it effective away are precisely why it looks so blunt at home.
Maybe that will change in the new year with some astute signings in January. Maybe the eventual returns of Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke will lift the team. Maybe enough of these ugly wins will engender enough confidence into the players that they start to express themselves, and it will all just simply click.
Those will be the factors that determine whether this season ever gets off the ground. These five away wins have been invaluable, not only for the points but the proof that Frank has coached a certain approach and a way to win into the team. But in the end, it will take a different approach, a different way to win, to convince everyone that Spurs are on the right path.