Here are our Tottenham talking points after Thomas Frank's side lost 3-2 at Bournemouth in the Premier League on Wednesday evening
Nobody does a storm in a teacup - or a coffee cup - quite like Tottenham Hotspur.
The sliding doors moment for Thomas Frank and Spurs came in the 83rd minute at the Vitality Stadium on Wednesday night. Had Djordje Petrovic not made a stunning full length save to prevent Micky van de Ven's header from crossing the line, then the chaos that ensued would likely have never occurred.
Instead, the drama brewed and spilled over both on and off the pitch as birthday boy Antoine Semenyo wrote his own ending to the script with a powerful low shot from outside the box that crept inside the bottom right corner of Guglielmo Vicario's net.
Tottenham captain Cristian Romero - he'll be back in a moment - had made no attempt to close him down and Semenyo sprinted off to celebrate the perfect ending to his Bournemouth career ahead of his impending move to Manchester City.
It was unfortuinately fitting that Semenyo is a self-confessed Arsenal fan because the other north London club also played their part in the drama on the day when images circulated of Frank enjoying a pre-match expresso in a cup bearing the Gunners' logo.
The cup had been left over from Mikel Arteta's team's visit at the weekend and the Dane and his staff had unwittingly picked them up and used them. As they walked out on to the pitch, the pitchside photographers snapped away as normal to leave Spurs fans fuming and Arsenal supporters sniggering.
"Definitely [I had] not noticed it. I think it's fair to say that we're not winning every single football match so it would be absolutely, completely stupid of me to take a cup with Arsenal. Is there anyone thinking I've done that? All the staff has done it," said Frank afterwards.
"They've been in the changing room, the game before us. Its normal to take a cup, give me an espresso, I do that before every game. I think actually it's a little bit sad in football that I need to be asked a question about that.
"I think we're definitely going in the wrong direction if we need to worry about me having a cup with another logo of another club, of course I'll never do that. That's extremely stupid."
If Spurs had won it would have been simply a silly side story, but to lose only threw the cup into the storm. It's difficult to imagine that not one member of the coaching staff noticed the branding on the cups at any point while making the coffee or during the entire time of walking around the pitch with them. At Brentford, it would have meant nothing, at Spurs it created a furore.
But to be honest, 'Cup-gate' was simply window dressing to the real problems that seeped out after the final whistle.
First Micky van de Ven took exception to something one travelling Spurs fan said to him as he went over to applaud the supporters' efforts. The Dutchman lost his head and appeared to be calling on the fan to 'take this outside' or technically inside, or something along those lines.
Pedro Porro then went over to thank the fans and ended up listening to their anger. To be fair to the Spaniard, he appeared more to be jostling with the Spurs bodyguard initially trying to pull him away to let him stay and listen, rather than having a go back at the fans. Either way, Vicario eventually pulled him away to prevent any potential problems.
The same was the case for Joao Palhinha who, following his spectacular overhead kick which had levelled the game for Tottenham, went over and spoke to the frustrated Tottenham faithful.
When the Portuguese midfielder was asked if words were exchanged with the fans, he said: "No, it was just the supporters sharing their frustration. We of course understand. We respect and we are fighting for all the same.
"We want to win - not just the players. The staff and the supporters. We are trying to get the victories, in my opinion, we deserve the last few games. And it's tough to speak a lot about the momentum when you lose."
The drama was not done yet though as Romero decided on the journey home to throw his occasional grenade into the mix.
"Apologies to all fans of you who follow us everywhere, who are always there and will continue to be," the Spurs captain wrote on Instagram to his 5.1 million followers.
"We are responsible, there’s no doubt about that. I am the first. But we will keep facing up to it and trying to turn the situation around, for ourselves and for the club.
"At times like this, it should be other people coming out to speak, but they don't - as has been happening for several years now. They only show up when things are going well, to tell a few lies.
"We'll stay here, working, sticking together and giving our all to turn things around. Especially at times like this, keeping quiet, working harder and moving forward all together, is part of football. All together, it will be easier."
The penultimate paragraph was later edited with the final 'lies' line removed to say: "At times like this, it should be other people coming out to speak, but they don't - as has been happening for several years now. They only show up when things are going well."
The post had been liked by fellow first team stars Porro, Xavi Simons, Richarlison and Radu Dragusin.
Porro replied: "Amen. Keep going brother. We have a lot of battles left." Richarlison simply applauded while Xavi only said: "Capi", short for captain.
Romero has never been backward in having a pop at the powers-that-be at Tottenham, as recently as June taking aim after Ange Postecoglou's sacking with a post that included the line "from day one you paved the way despite the many obstacles that always existed and always will exist."
Since then the Argentine World Cup winner has been made captain and signed a bumper new deal, which makes his latest outburst all the more tricky for the club to deal with.
The removed section about lies could well see him face punishment from within Spurs' walls and clarification on what he meant about 'lies' and whether it pertained to ambition promised before his new deal or anything else will remain unclear. That's because the biggest irony of all is that Romero himself rarely speaks to the media.
His one press conference this season as captain was illuminating and fascinating yet it was the only time he has addressed the English media in a group setting, aside from a couple of one-to-one interviews, over the past four-and-a-half years.
As he did with Postecoglou with a couple of past social media posts, the 27-year-old appeared to be trying to deflect the attention from the beleaguered Frank, who looked drained and furious at the final whistle, which is what a late killer opposition goal will do to you.
It has long been a problem at Tottenham that the head coach is the only one to speak publicly about the woes inside the organisation. Many a manager has remarked on it and Frank admitted as recently on Monday that it was an usual situation in England that sporting directors were not more public facing.
Daniel Levy was the focal point for fan anger for almost a quarter of a decace but the former chairman is exactly that nowadays - former. Frank praised Spurs CEO Vinai Venkatesham as the best communicator he has ever met and the former Arsenal supremo kicked off his tenure with a series of engaging video club interviews that went down well with the fanbase.
However, recent months have seen Spurs struggle and Frank left as the man attempting to explain it all, including why the club yet again find themselves in the position of having a sparse, injury hit squad with few options for the head coach.
Lucas Bergvall and potentially Rodrigo Bentancur appeared to join the injury list during the game at the Vitality Stadium while Frank is expected to confirm on Thursday that Mohammed Kudus will miss a chunk of the season, making Brennan Johnson's sale to Crystal Palace all the more frustrating.
January is a difficult window but Tottenham needed to prepare and plan to act swiftly and once again they have been unable to.
To be fair to Venkatesham, those at the top of clubs rarely speak publicly and there should be scope for either of Tottenham's two sporting directors Fabio Paratici or Johan Lange to speak. The problem is the awkward situation of the former's reported desire to move immediately to Fiorentina.
Tottenham are trying to take a long-term approach with Frank's appointment but the issue is that for the fans there's nothing so far to suggest that matters have even begun to improve.
If Spurs lose to Aston Villa in Saturday's FA Cup tie then the Lilywhites' season is all but over as early as January, batting a miracle in the Champions League.
it makes something of a mockery of the declaration that Postecoglou was sacked because the club needed to compete on all fronts. Nothing put in place at Tottenham since has resulted in that scenario coming to pass this season after a campaign which ended with silverware.
Spurs have looked slightly better going forward in the past couple of matches without exactly raining shots down upon the opposition goalkeeper, therefore drawing and losing the games against Sunderland and Bournemouth respectively.
They have not shed the Dr Tottenham tag either under Frank for Bournemouth had not won a single one of their past 11 games until the north London outfit rocked up on the south coast and their hosts' ills were cured.
Spurs should have won this game and did score two fine goals from Mathys Tel, again proving that he should have been getting more minutes, and Palhinha's acrobatic effort but they wasted other key chances, not least Richarlison's header against the right-hand post and Van de Ven's saved header.
The Dutchman also had a penalty awarded in his favour chalked off when VAR suggested the referee Darren England should look again after the defender appeared to hook an opponent's leg on the run rather than be brought down.
Xavi Simons was back and provided the assist for Tel with a clever backheel. Spurs do look more positive with a playmaker knitting together the lines of the team but he also faded as the encounter wore on.
At the other end, although Semenyo ended up being the departing hero for the Cherries, he was otherwise mostly ineffective before that point. Marcus Tavernier was the key player for the hosts, curling in first half crosses that culminated in goals for Evanilson and Junior Kroupi as Spurs left acres of space for the Bournemouth attackers.
"I think the second one is the biggest one. We need to accept sometimes the teams do something that is OK, but the second one we need to do better," said Frank.
On Semenyo's winning goal, he added: "The easiest thing is to say we can never concede that. I think our goal against Sunderland, after I look that back, that we can never concede.
"This one, we can never concede it anyway. I need to watch it back a little bit more calm-headed, of course, next time. Get everyone behind the ball. It's not like it's a transition where we have three, two, something looking absolutely hopeless.
"This was a situation where they've given everything, but then you finish on an angle quite far out on the side of the goal, which is not going to score every single time, but it did today."
The anger and frustration at what is happening at Tottenham was etched on Frank's face as he had to explain this defeat amid a run that now stretches to just two wins in 13 Premier League matches.
"I think it's very tough to sit here right now and we haven't got anything out of overall a good performance," he told football.london. "I think we started well, got up 1-0, conceding two goals on second phase set pieces. Especially the second one, we needed to do much better. But I really liked the character in the team and from the players, they gave everything.
"The second half, I think we were completely on top, and keep going even through disappointments and small setbacks, which we talked about before. Work very, very hard with the players and the team on that.
"Don't score inside the post from Richie, overturn the penalty, keep going, getting the equaliser, 2-2. After that, I think we are closer to winning than Bournemouth are. With the Micky header, with all the good opportunities. So, to sit here and concede in five, six minutes of extra time is very painful, very tough. But that's football."
There's football and then there's Tottenham Hotspur. It was another game that threatened positivity but instead brought the usual chaos.
Frank did not see Van de Ven's clash with a supporter after the final whistle but called for togetherness.
"I think it's fair to say everyone involved in Tottenham, players, staff, fans, everyone is a tough one to take today," he said.
"I think hopefully everyone can see how hard we worked to get everything in the right direction. And I think overall the performance was good, especially in the second half, in a game where we deserved to get more. That is extremely painful to be part of, so of course people are frustrated, I'm frustrated, so that's natural."
His midfielder Palhinha had a message for the Tottenham fans after the game.
"I just want to say keep supporting because the victories will come. It's frustration as I said. I felt we were the best team on the pitch. We were the only team on the pitch that wanted to win the game," said the Portuguese.
"Football is like that. Tomorrow is another day. We need to keep pushing. We have been working hard to get wins.
"We came here to win. Today and tomorrow probably the hangover is going to be really tough, but in football we cannot think too much about what happened."
Tottenham need togetherness but right now the club, the players and the fans feel more fragmented than ever before. It should never have been that way in the aftermath of their first trophy win in 17 years.
Spurs stars are quarrelling with the fans, the supporters booed the manager yet again and the captain is taking shots at the powers that be before seemingly getting told off for it..
If ever there was a time to push Tottenham in the right direction it's now. It feels like another mid-season point when the squad is depleted, injuries abound and the fans are being reminded that the January transfer window is a difficult one.
There's only so many times the supporters can hear the same things said each season without seeing planning, preparation and execution to ensure the club does not slump into the same battered position each time the winter comes around.
They need to be better and for Thomas Frank, he needs to ensure that awkward pre-match moment does not end up being the only cup he is associated with at Tottenham Hotspur.
