Dr Tottenham saw Wolves on Saturday, only he whipped away most of their medicine at the last moment.
Death, taxes and Tottenham generously ending a visiting team's winless streak are among the only certainties in life. If you are a manager in the Spurs dugout, regardless of whether it's the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Wembley or White Hart Lane, there will have been an instance or two or three or more when your Lilywhites side lost a match that on paper should never have happened against a team in dire straits.
Spurs are a footballing paradox. In European competition, they have not lost in 21 matches at home, winning 17 of those. Yet in the Premier League, Tottenham have triumphed in just three of their past 17 matches in their own backyard.
That's an abysmal record at a huge 62,850-seater stadium that was built to be a fortress, not a place filled with groans, moans and boos.
On Saturday night, 60,537 fans filed into the huge arena on Tottenham High Road and they got two different halves of football for their money.
The first period at least brought some creativity and chances with Mohammed Kudus seeing an early header touched on to the crossbar with Sam Johnstone. It was the seventh time the Ghana international has hit the woodwork since the start of last season, more than any other player in the Premier League.
Lucas Bergvall fluffed a good chance in the box after a great break by Destiny Udogie. Then the Swede combined with Kudus with a back flick for the winger to curl a shot home but from an offside position.
Bergvall was again involved with an acrobatic effort over the crossbar before Kudus forced Johnstone into a flying save. With the last kick of the first half former Spurs full-back Matt Doherty sent a volley against the top of the crossbar that should have been a warning that was heeded.
Of course it wasn't. Nine minutes after the break the visitors caught Spurs with a sucker punch. Guglielmo Vicario reacted well to save a Ladislav Krejci header from a corner but could only push it against Joao Palhinha and the ball bounced back to Santiago Bueno to poke home.
The remainder of the second half until the 94th minute was awful from Tottenham. They wasted possession constantly even though Thomas Frank was yelling at them at various points from the side of the pitch to be patient and not rush their passes.
They did not listen to the Spurs head coach but when the crowd shouted 'shoot' in unison they heard that. Cue a string of dreadful efforts from distance that were of more danger to those at the top of the south stand than Johnstone in the Wolves goal.
Just as Frank was at his most frustrated so two of his five changes suddenly worked. His other substitutions hadn't. Brennan Johnson and Pedro Porro offered little to nothing extra on the right flank than those they replaced and on the other side Wilson Odobert was as much use as a dunked Rich Tea biscuit.
Yet Mathys Tel and Pape Matar Sarr were there for Frank's SOS - save our substitutions. Tel deftly flicked the ball past a defender on the left in added time and drove inside before curling a low cross that Sarr touched back into the path of Palhinha.
The Portuguese didn't miss a beat in hitting a sweet curling strike into the bottom right corner of the net.
The summer signing went mad, whipping off his shirt and running to the corner of the east stand where it meets the south, roaring at them all. It was his third goal in six starts in all competitions since the Premier League season began. Not bad for a defensive midfielder.
In his euphoria he forgot that Spurs actually wanted to win the game. Johnson had run and grabbed the ball out of the net and he screamed across to Palhinha to get his shirt back on so they could run back and try to find a winner.
That did not come as Spurs returned to looking disjointed again in the 3-4-3 formation they ended the game in.
It was yet another far from impressive Premier League performance at home - the Burnley game aside. It's a positive certainly that Tottenham are coming back to grab points in matches they have not played well in but it's also an indicator that Frank's side is still very much in the making.
"Yeah, you can say that. I think that is probably fair," the Dane said of that suggestion. "I think the first half was good, I was happy with that in many ways. I felt we were on top, created two or three very good chances and got into a lot of dangerous situations where we didn’t create a chance where we should have created more.
"You know you are thinking, ‘yes this is very good, produce a lot of crosses and we are on track’. Football is not like 'Wolves please roll over'. It is the Premier League and it is extremely competitive.
"So, you’re going into the second half and thinking I know it is not like you score, but I think OK, it could be good. I think the big change second half was probably their goal. It changed the momentum of the game and then at half-time they changed to a 5-3-2. I think that made it more difficult. Not that we didn’t know they could do it, but of course how do we get the message across to the players?"
He added: "Of course we got a little bit on about the pressure and getting it right, but the goal meant we probably lost a bit of structure and coolness. It took more passes to get up into the right positions, cross it from the right area or produce from the right area instead of a cross with your weaker foot or a difficult position and a shot from 30-yards even though the crowd scream shoot.
"I like the effort and mentality and I think it is huge actually and I meant that to get a point on a night where it is not perfect, especially not in the second half. Now that is two times in a row [in the Premier League] we come back. I think that tells a lot about the players. Yes, we want free-floating, yes we want more and we did not hit our highest performance level today, but when you are down at 90 plus and you get a point, I think that’s positive."
It was fitting that Palhinha scored what was the eighth goal of the day netted in the 90th minute or later in the Premier League, the most in a single day in the history of the competition.
For the midfielder won more duels, with 10, and made more tackles, with five, than any of his team-mates.
"I feel, first of all, glad to score these goals, but the coach is demanding to sometimes in the game be more inside the box and these goals happen because I'm there," said Palhinha. "I'm not too far from the box and I try to get the chances.
"Yeah, today I scored a good goal. But if you ask me if I would change the goal for the victory, for sure, I will do it."
Palhinha is doing his part and even though he was carried away in the emotion of his goal - joining the long line of players booked for celebrating by whipping off a top and getting booked - the 30-year-old was ultimately disappointed.
"It's a draw, but it felt like a loss, to be honest. I think we played a really good first half and when we suffered the goal, we started to drop a lot, in my opinion," he said in his club interview.
"I think we didn't have the patience in the right moments when we needed to find a good way to score and we need to be much more calm in these moments, because it will be key for us.
"I think if we scored probably in the first half, the whole game probably will be much different. But yeah, it's a result that for me, feels like a loss. And I said before that this is the game that is mandatory to win, especially in our home."
When asked where the patience needs to come from, Palhinha touched on something that is noticeable at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
While the blame for just three Premier League wins in 17 home games can be laid squarely at the door of the players and their managers, the frustration manifests in the atmosphere inside the stadium.
The supporters pay some of the top prices in Europe and deserve to watch better but it also opens that whole debate. Are the fans there to push on the team or are the team there to entertain the fans?
That big arena in N17 can certainly feel more like a quiet theatre at times with an audience waiting for the performers to earn their keep rather than a roaring, ear-splitting hellish place for opposition sides to step out into.
When it's at its best, there's an amazing noise inside the stadium, but that's all too rare. That's down to the players but also the fans must play their part and Palhinha admits the unease transfers to the players.
"I think this is the environment as well, which create this on the team," he said. "And we need to push not just the players, but all the supporters as well, because we want to win the game.
"Like the supporters, nobody wants to win more games than us, for sure. The players, the staff, the coach, everyone, the supporters, of course.
"And we need to push us and not in these moments make sometimes the team more, how do I say, not stressful, but like a little bit more on edge, maybe.
"But I think it's normal. As a supporter, I understand sometimes these reactions as well, but we need to push us, not just the players, but as well the supporters, because we want to win the games and we need their support for sure to change these kind of games. I think that will be a key for the future."
One player who felt the fans' frustration more than most was Guglielmo Vicario, particularly when he rushed kicks that were sailing out of play at times. It's the chicken and the egg scenario again. Was the Italian causing the unease in the crowd with his kicking or were the frustrations and the crowd's desire for the ball to be played quickly causing him to rush his kicks.
"I definitely think it's not easy," said Frank. "I need to look at the situations back but at the top of my head it looks like we could have also helped him a little bit more in those situations, open up a bit more. Give him more options.
"There was also one or two where he could have done better but hey, that's part of it. It's not easy but that's not to say he couldn't have done better."
Another player who could have done better was Xavi Simons. The 22-year-old is being billed as the creativity saviour, the answer to a squad that is missing chance creators like James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski as well as finishers like Dominic Solanke and Randal Kolo Muani.
Xavi wants to be the main man but Frank is more often than not pushing him out wide on the left, which is stunting his ability to create and thread the balls through that Richarlison was starved of on Saturday.
It's not helping that the young Dutchman of course has to adapt to the pace and power of the Premier League and he spent as much time bouncing off opponents and on to the floor as he did with the ball.
When football.london told Frank it looked like Xavi struggled to find any rhythm in the game, the Spurs boss said: "I think that's fair to say. I think Xavi, he had some good actions, also carrying the ball forward and you had to foul him three or four times.
"But there was a lot of situations where he was not as sharp, I think that's fair to say. I think he would say the same himself. But I also think it's natural.
"You're coming into a new team, a new league. To find that rhythm quickly is difficult. And I also think that we said the other time, I think we're very happy with the Brighton performance in many ways.
"I think the first half was positive [tonight] also, you know, offensive. But that free flowing to have it enough, you know, that we need to keep working on. And then there are just some days where we don't hit the highest level."
To his credit, Frank is a manager who you can question tactics with. Many of his predecessors bristled if a team selection or tactical decision was questioned by the media. You could often see them looking at the reporter and clearly thinking 'I've got more coaching qualifications on one paragraph on my CV than they'll ever have in their life'.
That's no doubt true but it's important that managers are held accountable and can also explain their decisions without taking umbrage. Frank is well known as someone who is happy to take on people's opinions. He may not agree with them but he is very inclusive with his coaching staff, players and will listen to us mere non-football mortals.
He was asked why he didn't play Xavi through the middle to create chances in a game at home against the bottom side of the league that surely did not require both Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur.
He did not get annoyed or irritated. Instead he took it as all it was - a question.
"I will always look back at it but a good, old coach told me once that the line-up you picked, you did that for a reason and you don’t know what would happen if you pick the other one," he said.
"Maybe you would have lost 2-0. So, I need to go with what I believe in of course. That is not to say I am not watching the game back and not reflecting and thinking about hmm, could we, should we, you never know? I actually think first half was quite good and we created enough.
"We would like to create a bit more, yes but actually after I took Rodri out, you could say it didn’t work because we lost the structure, so who knows? One thing is for sure, we need to do a little bit better in the second half."
But is Xavi being played out wide because he's not up to speed yet with the Premier League so it's less crucial if he loses the ball on the flank than in the centre of the pitch?
"No, I don't think [that]. I think it's trying to get the right balance into the team. For me also to learn the players and find out how we can get the best players on the pitch at the right time," said the Spurs boss.
"So that I'm of course looking into. I'm very aware that Xavi he can play as a 10. He also got in as a 10 against Brighton because that was the third game in a week. And I think that was positive.
"I think today when he got in as a 10, it didn't really work, and that was not only because of him, by the way. I think the team, the whole team was out of sync in the last 35 minutes or something like that.
"But of course, I try to look into what is the best midfield. I think it's fair to say both Rodri and Joao have been very good for us so far in the season. And Lucas has been fantastic so you like to keep your players that are a little bit in the flow."
The problem for Xavi and Spurs was that when he did get his chance infield in the second half there wasn't a balance to the team. Johnson had gone to the right but Kudus had been brought to the left and it did not work.
Xavi and Kudus just kept moving into each other's lanes and eventually the ineffective Dutchman made way for the even more ineffective Odobert.
That Spurs rescued a point and remain third in the fledgling table was the main positive to take away from the game with perhaps Bergvall, Palhinha and some battling displays from Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, who Frank had a long chat to as they walked off the pitch, the only plus points from the players as well as Tel and Sarr's late contribution.
Djed Spence again maintained the theory that he's more effective as a left-back right now than in his natural right-sided role. His delivery isn't good enough into the box at this moment and that's why the left suits him because he can cut inside and get the ball in low rather than cross on the run.
On the other side, Udogie got into some great positions but just takes the wrong option in them, often hesitating when an early ball would slice open the opposition.
Vicario did not have much to deal with but his involvement in the goal will be analysed. In real time, it's difficult to see what more he could have done with a reaction save but slowed down it looks like he could have pushed it wider or even tried to catch it. Life doesn't happen in slow motion unfortunately. His kicking and distribution though was occasionally rushed and messy.
The point will have to do and Tottenham sit four points off leaders Liverpool, who finally lost their maximum start with a defeat to Crystal Palace, who lie second and unbeaten, a point ahead of Spurs.
"I think if you look before the game, you would say that there was a good chance for us to win," said Frank. "But I also said it before the game, we haven't beaten Wolves the last five times, no, six times in a row.
"And also a team that have lost the first five, there's a time where they will get something. And also I said before the game, they had played very, very even games. So it's never easy. That said, I hoped and believed if we hit a top performance, we would win. We didn't hit a top performance.
"I think we hit an average performance, but you do that sometimes. We got a point on a day when not everything worked and then we move forward."
There is no time to dwell too much on this display for Spurs will fly to Norway on Monday evening to prepare for a rematch against Bodo/Glimt on the artificial pitch of the Aspmyra Stadion.
The Norwegian side are enjoying their first ever appearance in the Champions League proper and they gave plenty of teams some tough moments last season in the Europa League.
Tottenham managed to score five goals across two legs against Bodo and while this is a new Spurs under a different manager they need to create and they need to score.
A trip north of the Arctic Circle awaits and the north London side need to find their rhythm and most importantly their balance to stop them sliding back into being a team that is always looking to come from behind.
For Dr Tottenham needs to hang up his white coat and retire. He's been helping others out for far too long.
