Hotspur HQ

The reactions after the 4-1 Tottenham Hotspur loss to Premier League leaders Arsenal in the North London Derby at the Emirates Stadium have obviously been resoundingly negative, and after such a defeat as that in which Spurs were set up with the wrong XI, wrong tactics, and the most pathetic mentality possible for such a derby, 99.99 percent of the negativity has obviously been directed at manager Thomas Frank.

His negatives are starting to far outweigh his positives, and while you could try to argue that it's been just one game, the reality is that it's been at least two, as Spurs were embarrassed horribly in both high profile London rivalry matches against Chelsea and Arsenal this. season.

But the way Tottenham were blown out by Arsenal despite setting up so defensive has been the last straw for many, as there are Spurs fans already calling for Frank's head to roll. That's a bit premature, but it is understandable in the context of this loss.

Ange Postecoglou brought fight

Because it wasn't just losing by three goals and getting completely blown out by Arsenal. It was the way in which Spurs loss, as they looked like a team totally the antithesis of what the fans want to see. They were slow, cowardly, and lacking any fight.

Although Tottenham finished 17th under Ange Postecoglou last season, were carved up in midfield, and then watched as Big Ange flopped horribly this season for Nottingham Forest, at least they were never lacking in fight. And that's a big reason why the fans always loved Big Ange to the end - and, more importantly, why Spurs won the Europa League despite being so historically poor in Premier League play last season.

Frank has brought none of the positive results and none of the fight. His supposedly pragmatic defensive style has actually allowed more goals through 12 games with no more points in the table and no more goals scored - and he got Mohammed Kudus and Xavi SImons to work with in the summer transfer window, inexplicably benching the latter in the North London Derby en route to defeat.

Tottenham Hotspur turned in their worst performance of the 2025/26 season in the most important game of the campaign thus far, as they were blown apart by bitter North London Derby rivals Arsenal 4-1 in a game that was simply never close.

At no point in the match did Tottenham look like they even belonged on the same pitch as Arsenal, who are running away with the Premier League title at this point if this keeps up. Far from looking like a top five team in English football, Spurs were atrocious and looked more like the bottom five team they were last season.

So many individual players deserve criticism from this 4-1 defeat, as there is more than enough to go around after a result like that. And obviously, the manager himself deserves the brunt of the criticism when the team played as poorly as Spurs did, as Thomas Frank was also responsible for starting certain individuals who really should no longer be starting for Tottenham.

Rodrigo Bentancur is finished

One of those individuals is Rodrigo Bentancur, who has sunk his game to a new low since signing a contract extension this season. Despite being a worse player than Lucas Bergvall, Pape Matar Sarr, and Archie Gray with approximately a quarter of the upside of any of these young midfield talents, Bentancur has been racking up undeserved starts on Frank's watch.

Bentancur was the worst player on the pitch for Tottenham. As anyone would have predicted, he was totally owned by the elite Arsenal midfield, as Mikel Arteta specifically game planned to catch Bentancur out, taking advantage of his physical weakness, slow speed, and cowardly overall play.

Culpable on three of the four goals, Bentancur was lethargic and almost apathetic in a North London Derby that required a lot more fire from a supposed veteran leader. The former Juventus flop was so slow and sloppy defensively that he made Joao Palhinha do the work of three men, and yet that still wasn't enough to help Spurs tread water defensively.

It has been a trying season already for new Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank, and while the Danish manager has brought some positives to the table by having them in fifth coming into the North London Derby, he's quickly thrown away all of that good will in one fell swoop.

In truth, Frank's positives have been more down to luck than tactics, and he's been embarrassed in far too many Premier League matches this season to ignore. It's telling that he went all out defensive in Tottenham's two biggest matches of the season, losing 1-0 to Chelsea in what should have been a 5-0 blowout before losing 4-1 to Arsenal in a similarly putrid performance.

There were believers in Frank from the get go, and Spurs fans didn't hold it against their new manager that they were still upset with how Daniel Levy pushed Ange Postecoglou out after they brought him the Europa League title. Instead, they acknowledged that Postecoglou had serious flaws and that they finished 17th, and they were willing to give Frank a chance.

Thomas Frank set Tottenham up to fail

And they've still been willing to do so, even after some rough displays and a rather cowardly tactical approach. However, this 4-1 loss to Arsenal is simply unacceptable and very, very difficult to forgive. It is the kind of loss that gets managers fired, and while it is too soon for that to be the case with Frank, there are plenty of Spurs supporters willing to go that direction.

It may seem like a knee jerk reaction, but a 4-1 loss to Arsenal really is that bad for Tottenham. It is the ultimate no go for this organization, and Frank went there by bringing it upon himself. Because it wasn't just the performance itself or the score line, but rather, also how it happened.

Frank set Tottenham up to be super defensive, and yet they still conceded four goals and were completely disorganized, torn to shreds by Arsenal and the man who snubbed them in the summer transfer window, Eberechi Eze. Worse yet, the Tottenham manager egged on Eze's performance with his inane, "Who's Eze?" remark before the match.

Tottenham fans are a patient bunch, but through cowardice and incompetence in the North London Derby, Frank is now in a very precarious position. He is quickly losing the benefit of the doubt, and Tottenham fans are one more calamity away from having their pitchforks fully out.

When Tottenham Hotspur hired Thomas Frank, they thought they were getting a fresh, up and coming and innovative Premier League manager who could help Spurs take the next step forward as an organization. They thought they were hiring a pragmatic, attacking minded head coach who could develop young players and maximize the strengths of the veteran attackers.

Instead, Frank is leaving Tottenham with more questions than answers in his first few frustrating months as manager, and while there have been some positive signs for Spurs, there have been some massive low points.

The Chelsea loss was horrible enough, but this 4-1 defeat against Arsenal is truly a new low for the organization, just when they were blowing smoke about wanting to compete for Premier League - and even Champions League - titles under Frank.

One of the big reasons for hope for that cause was the signing of top midfielder Xavi Simons, but his usage under Thomas Frank this season has been a potential sign that maybe the Danish manager isn't ready to work with a top club like Spurs.

Xavi Simons was snubbed

Frank shocked everyone by leaving Simons out of the starting lineup against Arsenal entirely, and while he subbed the Dutchman into the game early in the second half, the damage was already done. And Frank's response to his decision is clearly not up to snuff.

He said in the post game press conference, via The Spurs Express, “He's getting better and better but it was a tactical decision. It was between him and Wilson, who has also played well in recent weeks.”

With all due respect to Frank, Wilson Odobert was never going to be the right option to start in the North London Derby. He's too young, too raw, and, honestly, too week at this stage. He was always going to get bullied out of the game, and Arsenal forced him into a true attacking disasterclass from a player who created nothing.

Yes, Odobert played well, but he wasn't even starting for Spurs and certainly wasn't being used as some sort of a Simons ersatz against elite competition. It was a leap too far for Frank to do this, and it is almost a tacit admission that he has no idea what he has in Simons or how to use him.

So instead of adjusting his clearly failing tactics ahead of the North London Derby, Frank figured he'd just give up on Simons for the biggest game of the season. And his explanation pretty much admits that fact.

Thomas Frank is now enemy No. 1 for most Tottenham Hotspur supporters after an embarrassing North London Derby defeat, 4-1 to Arsenal, on Sunday. At no point in the game did Spurs look like they were capable of winning, and they honestly didn't belong on the same pitch as the Premier League leaders.

It was a new low for Spurs this season, who had already infuriating their fans with a near-0.00 xG performance against Chelsea in their first big rivalry fixture of the Thomas Frank era. After this defeat to Arsenal, there are serious questions about Frank's competency as manager.

So what did Frank do in the immediate aftermath of the worst loss of his entire coaching career? He decided to try to protect himself by taking a shot at Ange Postecoglou, and any self respecting Spurs fan can see through his attempt to sugar coat this obvious pot shot with fake diplomacy before hand. He is clearly making an excuse for himself by bringing up Big Ange's last season, via The Spurs Watch:

"We are very disappointed and unhappy with the performance today. Definitely a lot to work on still. It's worth remembering that we finished 17th last season."

Ange Postecoglou got thrown under the bus

Look, even if he is technically right and any fair analysis from a third party perspective should bring up the fact that Tottenham were historically poor in the Premier League last season, that's clearly not the refrain Spurs fans want to hear from their manager after he got drubbed 4-1 by the club's biggest rivals.

What Frank and Tottenham produced on Sunday at the Emirates Stadium in the North London Derby is nothing less than 100 percent unacceptable. It cannot happen, not at this level and certainly not in this game against this opponent.

And yet, Frank gets in that little last shot and excuse, throws his predecessor under the bus, and makes no attempt at accountability. To bring up Postecoglou, since Frank wants to go there, yes, Big Ange came in 17th in the league and sometimes got annoying with his drawn out press conferences and chest pounding, but at least he was the one taking on the responsibility, being accountable, and protecting his players with the buck stopping with him.

Frank doesn't show that same leadership, and it is actually quite ironic and worth pointing out that he decided to go after Postecoglou instead of going after himself the very first time he faced a true crisis point defeat in his Spurs career.

Tottenham Hotspur tried so hard to sign Eberechi Eze this past summer transfer window after his big FA Cup title win for Crystal Palace, but the England international only had eyes for his childhood club Arsenal, signing with them over Spurs at the last second.

Coming into the first North London Derby of both Eze's and Thomas Frank's careers, the latter made the unwise decision of, even in joking manager, remarking, "Who's Eze?" when asked the obvious question about the big transfer snub of the summer.

Frank provided Arsenal and Eze with a soundbite and bulletin board material that Eze then turned into a red faced moment for Frank. It was almost comical watching him out there, as he could not be stopped. Eze was untouchable, scoring a remarkable hat trick and dominating a totally lethargic Tottenham side that was overly defensive in approach and yet still sieve like.

Eberechi Eze was the story of the North London Derby

He ran circles around the Tottenham midfield, exposing Frank's tactical disasterclass as the Premier League leading Arsenal won 4-1 with three of those goals directly from the boot of the attacking midfielder entering his prime.

So much for the boost of Arsenal not having captain Martin Odegaard out there, as Eze turned in the most memorable individual performance of the 2025/26 Premier League season so far with his hat trick, showing his bags of quality. Meanwhile, Xavi Simons, the player Spurs signed instead, didn't even start thanks to the galaxy brain of Frank in the dugout.

Tottenham only didn't sign Eze because they were unwilling to pony up a few extra million pounds that Arsenal were in order to sweeten the pot for Crystal Palace. They could have easily signed Eze if they were more proactive this summer, even with that overarching theme of Arsenal being his childhood club.

And then on Sunday, Frank made things worse by being so ill prepared. He was ostensibly so confident in his game plan that he made that back handed quib about Eze in the pre game press conference, and yet when it all went down on Sunday, he was totally empty handed. His approach was disastrous, and Eze absolutely ate Tottenham alive.

And now, it is Eze, the man they missed, who has sent Tottenham into a crisis point, and perhaps this will be the first domino to fall in Frank's demise at Spurs. Only he can respond in kind to save himself after Eze embarrassed him.

Tottenham Hotspur were handed their most humiliating result in a season filled with disappointing defeats. As if their lethargic 1-0 loss to rivals Chelsea a few weeks ago wasn't already a clear warning shot across the bow of embattled manager Thomas Frank, Spurs latest 4-1 defeat to North London Derby rivals Arsenal in their biggest game of the season so far has sent everyone into a tailspin.

And Frank has a lot of mistakes to answer for in the aftermath of a blowout loss that was never in question. To begin the match, Frank snubbed the player with the most attention on him coming into the derby, discarding top summer signing Xavi Simons in favor of young, unproven Wilson Odobert in the playmaker position.

Odobert was predictably poor and overmatched against a world class Arsenal midfield and defense. The young Frenchman is a quality talent who is coming up in his own right and had a few nice games recently, but those pleasantries were grossly overstated by a few overzealous Spurs supporters, wanting to swing the pendulum away from the gross criticism he had received earlier in the season.

Wilson Odobert isn't ready yet

But Odobert proved that he is too raw for a game of this magnitude. Simons did come off the bench in the second half to join the festivities, and while he was admittedly not effective again either, he was still a bit better than Odobert and did improve the team.

Simons is too good to be riding the pine or playing suboptimal roles. The fact that Tottenham made him their most expensive signing after serious interest from Chelsea and other top clubs, only for Frank to cluelessly squander him, is a huge indictment of the manager that has to be a bigger talking point after the Arsenal loss.

Tottenham are not putting Simons in a position to succeed, and benching him for a game of this magnitude was hardly ever going to be a wise decision. A few Frank apologists tried to play up the Odobert form angle coming into the game after hearing of his controversial decision, and that backfired in unsurprising faction.

There was simply no justification from any reasonable person for Simons sitting this game out, and Frank has continually snubbed his biggest signing this season. It could ultimately be his undoing, too, as more Spurs fans slowly turn against a manager who does not look ready for the big time himself.

Tottenham Hotspur were beyond humiliated in the North London Derby on Sunday, losing 4-1 to Arsenal in a game in which they never looked like winning. If anything, it's a miracle Spurs somehow didn't lose by more, as they were down and out almost from the get go, shredded into pieces by summer snub Eberechi Eze.

It's been a long season already for Tottenham, and it looks like it could get even worse if Thomas Frank and Co. don't quickly respond, as evidenced by how helpless and outright putrid they looked at the Emirates Stadium.

Well, it isn't going to get any easier for Spurs next week either. After facing PSG, whom they lost to in the UEFA Super Cup to start th campaign, in the Champions League at mid week, Spurs will take on another tough London club next weekend in Fulham.

And they will have to battle Fulham without their most important and best overall player, as Argentina international Cristian Romero will be unable to partake in the game against Marco Silva's underrated group of merry men.

Cristian Romero is not easily replaceable

That's because Romero was handed his fifth yellow card of the 2025/26 Premier League season in Sunday's defeat to Arsenal, meaning he will be suspended for one game against the Cottagers next weekend.

While Kevin Danso is a dream third center back to have within the ranks and Micky van de Ven is another world class central defender who will still be out there to start for Spurs, there is simply no replacing Romero.

Because Romero isn't jut an elite defender. He is elite on the ball, too, as he is a great ball carrier and passer, progressing the ball importantly for a Tottenham team that has been awful on the ball and at building attacks - as Arsenal so clearly helped expose to the rest of the Premier League on Sunday.

Not having Romero out there against Fulham will make that matchup all the more difficult, and while you'd back Spurs to win that game normally, that's not the case this season. Now, Spurs are the underdogs, and especially without Romero, a draw may be difficult to come by if the midfielders and forwards don't improve - and if Frank doesn't change things up, especially with a midfield that has been constantly overrun and is at huge risk of being overrun worse without Romero stepping up to help out behind them.

Tottenham Hotspur now have two reasons to thank Ange Postecoglou. Firstly, they obviously have to thank the Australian manager for bringing them their first major trophy in decades, winning the Europa League last season over fellow Premier League powerhouses Manchester United. But secondly, they have to thank Postecoglou for, albeit briefly, weakening Nottingham Forest.

Because now that Forest have fired Postecoglou and hired the notorious Sean Dyche to lead their merry men of underdogs, it's become patently obvious that Big Ange was a bit of a fraud of a manager and perhaps would have dragged Spurs to further depths in the Premier League than an already historically putrid 17th place finish.

Without Postecoglou managing them, Forest were highly impressive again on Saturday in the Premier League, defeating defending champions Liverpool by a scoreline of 3-0. Now, Liverpool haven't exactly been at their best lately and are now at risk of falling into the bottom half of the table, but when you look at how stacked their squad is, a 3-0 blowout is insanely impressive no matter how you spell it.

Tottenham fans still love Ange Postecoglou

Forest were pushing for the Champions League last season and were outright the worst team in the Premier League under Ange, and now they are back to dominating clubs. They have lost just one game in their last six.

Postecoglou will always be loved by Tottenham fans, and the irony is that his spectacularly failed tenure with Nottingham Forest is only more reason for the fans to love him since he weakened the team that screwed them out of Morgan Gibbs-White in the summer.

And speaking of Gibbs-White, he scored for Forest in the victory and looks so much better without Postecoglou holding back his production. That then makes you wonder how much more productive James Maddison could be under Thomas Frank, especially if big Dominic Solanke can get - and stay- healthy for the remainder of the 2025/26 season.

It's hard to speak ill of Postecoglou when he did so much to try and get Spurs to win and was ultimately successful in doing what Spurs had not been able to do for years and years. At the same time, realistically, he's not a great coach at the top level of the Premier League, and the best teams and managers in the game figured him out pretty quickly to what eventually led to embarrassing results that then continued at Forest.

Tottenham Hotspur have been hit harder than any other club in the Premier League with injuries this season, and even with Ange Postecoglou gone at the helm, his presence in this regard very much still lingers on the injury report.

Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski, and James Maddison all came into the season with injuries, and even new signing Randal Kolo Muani arrived with a dead leg. Solanke aggravated his issue, while Destiny Udogie, Mohammed Kudus, Cristian Romero, Pape Matar Sarr, Archie Gray, and Lucas Bergvall have all been among those to join the holdovers on the injury report at various points this season.

But even the stars out on loan haven't been immune from the bad luck injury crisis that seemingly plagues Tottenham players on an annual basis. Over the November international break, gem wide playmaker Mikey Moore suffered an injury for the England youth international team.

Tottenham have to wait for more updates

Now, according to his own manager Danny Rohl at a press conference, via Sky Sports Scotland, Moore is among three players currently at risk of missing the entire remainder of the 2025/26 season for Rangers with an injury. The others are John Souttar and Derek Cornelius. Rohl said, It's always an honour to play for your own country... as a club manager you always want to protect your players."

Out with an unspecified muscular injury that requires further evaluation, it's anyone's guess as to when the uber talented Moore will be back. His injury comes at an especially terrible time, too, as Moore was breaking out again after a bad start to his loan spell in Scotland, with the appointment of Rohl unsurprisingly completely changing his fortunes.

Even though Moore isn't a current Tottenham first team player, he was last season and shined even on the international stage at the Europa League. Spurs loaned him to Rangers in the hopes that he would blossom into a focal player and star before returning to help solve the issue on the wings for the Tottenham first team.

So far, Moore has quietly taken steps in that direction, so a season ending injury for the 18 year old potential franchise player would be devastating for both Rangers and Spurs, pushing back his development potentially a full year further. Moore is one of those players Tottenham fans have to be glued to long term, and, therefore, any injury updates going forward on him are crucial to monitor.