Here are our Tottenham talking points after their 2-1 home defeat to Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday night
The biggest problem for Thomas Frank is that Tottenham Hotspur have not improved under his watch at this point.
Tottenham currently sit in 10th place in the Premier League with 18 points to their name, having scored 21 goals and conceded 16 after 13 matches. Last season at this stage they had scored seven more goals, let in two fewer and had two more points to their name in seventh place.
If Arsenal win at Chelsea on Sunday then Spurs will be almost as far from the top of the table with 14 points than they are from bottom side Wolves, who are currently 16 points below with a game in hand.
When a club makes a managerial change, it's because they believe they can improve what they have.
Frank has a history of starting very slowly at both Brentford and Brondby and his solid early weeks at Tottenham may have only briefly postponed that this time around.
The north London club will not give him the time those smaller clubs did though, especially when it's very difficult to watch Tottenham right now.
Opta pointed out after this latest defeat to Fulham that Spurs are averaging just 9.5 shots and 3.2 shots on target per match in the Premier League this season. Both of those are their lowest averages on record in a single campaign since 2003-04.
This was another night that showed the connection with the fans is as broken as ever. If anything the boos that were twice sent towards Guglielmo Vicario, the noise at both the half-time and full-time whistles and for Mohammed Kudus' goal were the only real shows of emotion from a fanbase that has grown apathetic.
It's not hard to see why. They've been served up slop for Michelin star prices.
On Saturday night, 60,546 fans turned up who are clearly glutton for punishment because Tottenham have now won just three of their past 21 home league matches. It's tough to justify paying to come to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2025.
It's hardly the most enjoyable day out unless you're an away fan. Otherwise you could easily mistake it for the London Dungeon.
On this occasion the fans had to watch Spurs go 2-0 down within six minutes. It was the earliest that Tottenham have ever conceded two goals in a Premier League home match. Another record for the collection.
Kenny Tete's shot deflected off Destiny Udogie and into the net just three minutes in and not long after that Vicario came out to claim a ball outside of his box. He did manage to do that well enough but then inexplicably chose not to kick it out of play and instead hit a weak pass down the line and the ball eventually fell to Harry Wilson, who curled it back from the touchline into the empty net.
Vicario was booed with his next two touches and then cheered sarcastically when he next kicked the ball out of play, despite showing character to put himself in the same situation by rushing out.
Vicario has saved Tottenham repeatedly this season and it made for uncomfortable viewing. It was all very reminiscent of Davinson Sanchez being booed for mistakes by the Spurs fans during the home defeat to Bournemouth in April 2023 until he was finally taken off.
"I've never seen this in my career. I feel really bad for Davinson," said his captain Hugo Lloris that day. "He's a team-mate, he's a friend and he's been fighting for the club for many, many years now.
"It's just sad. The story is sad for the club, for the fans, for the player. It's something you don't want to see in football."
Just over two and a half years on and it was happening again.
"I take full responsibility for the second goal we conceded," Vicario posted on Instagram after the game. "Moments like this hurt, especially when the results aren’t going our way. Now more than ever, it’s time to fight even harder and give everything for this club."
The Italian fronted up by asking to do the interviews for the club and Sky Sports.
Of the booing, he said to the latter: "It's part of football, so I am a big man, I am quite older. We cannot be influenced by the situation in the stands.
"The fans have the right to do what they think and probably it is on us to stay more calm and focus more on ourselves because we know our game plan and our strengths. We are lacking a little bit of composure to overturn the result. Today it is a bad defeat and tough to accept."
Fulham could have been further ahead in a horrendous start to the match as Samuel Chukwueze curled an effort against the left-hand post before Micky van de Ven prevented a third Fulham goal with a last-gasp tackle to stop the same Fulham player after he had rounded Vicario.
Spurs grabbed one back through Mohammed Kudus in the second half but they could not climb the mountain of their own making and the fans just weren't having it.
When Lucas Bergvall, who had seen a header cleared off the Fulham goalline, attempted to whip up the crowd for a second half corner, it brought the smallest of murmurs in response.
Perhaps it's because Spurs were looking to rescue a draw at home against Fulham. The team with the worst away record in the Premier League this season were up against the side with second worst home one. Dr Tottenham only had one prescription available and there was to be no self-medication.
Amid the half-time boos, the Tottenham players had gathered in a huddle before going down the tunnel. Both the 19-year-old Bergvall and captain for the day Van de Ven could be seen saying things to the group. It says plenty about the team's current problems that a teenager is having to gee them up.
After the game, the boos rained down again and the tannoy stadium as often is the case in defeat played Munich by Editors - a song that just means pain for Tottenham fans.
It's somewhat fitting, or simply ill-thought out by Spurs, that the songs' lyrics include the lines "People are fragile things, you should know by now. Be careful what you put them through."
As that song pumped out, the Spurs players chose to applaud the big south stand only from near the centre circle rather than walking over. Bergvall looked to be thinking about doing that at one point but saw Vicario and decided otherwise.
It was only a few weeks before that the concussed Swedish teenager was being taken away by the Italian as someone in that south stand - a 'bad person' in the words of the keeper - berated him for no apparent reason.
On Saturday, Pedro Porro went down the tunnel at the final whistle, only to reappear moments later and march across the pitch, shouting something at Bergvall, seemingly telling him not to applaud the fans before he stormed back down the tunnel, whipping his shirt off on the way.
The Spaniard had had a stinker of a match, struggling with his crosses - only three of his 16 found their target - and needing to be bailed out by Van de Ven after allowing Chukwueze to ease past him.
When it came to the boos, Frank was keen to distinguish between the different types in this latest Spurs woe show.
"Definitely conceding two goals in six minutes gives us a mountain to climb. I think it is the classic [thing that] when you are in a bad spell or a tough spell, things go against you. First one is a deflected shot and the second one is a mistake from Vicario. It happens," he said.
"I didn’t like how the fans reacted to that. They booed at him straight after and also three or four times when he was on the ball. For me that is unacceptable. They can’t be true Tottenham fans. Booing after [the game], fair. No problem. But when we are playing we need to be together. If we turn it around, we need to do it together. That is hugely important for me."
He's not wrong about the boos being unhelpful but the strength of his words, questioning fandom, comes at a dangerous time for him. He's backing his goalkeeper but he's also only further driving a wedge between him and a section of the fanbase.
His irritation grew as the press conference wore on, the Dane at his most snappiest with his answers since he arrived at the club.
He had selected an odd formation which seemed to be a lopsided 4-3-3 with Richarlison and Randal Kolo Muani both playing centrally as a pairing and Kudus on the right, meaning nobody was attacking down the left ahead of Udogie.
It made Spurs' play very predictable and the ball was constantly worked out to Porro or Kudus and Fulham knew they would do that.
When football.london mentioned to Frank that the formation felt overloaded on the right with nothing on the left, he simply smiled and said: "That’s true."
The ensuing pause brought the follow-up of 'well what was the thinking behind that?'.
"I wanted two strikers in and around each other which looked good at times but of course the gameplan was definitely way more difficult after the 2-0," he said.
He later said of the formation: "I think for me the first half was clearly we were rushing things too much. We were going in behind when we shouldn’t go in behind, we were playing in the middle when we shouldn’t play in the middle and all those bits because we were rushing too much.
"I think it is difficult to judge the first half. Of course it is a part of everything and it looked much better second half and also before I made three changes."
In essence, he was saying his own substitutions and tactical decisions were no good and to use his own earlier words 'that's true'.
Then came this little back and forth with a reporter about the boos during and after the game.
"With the fans booing during the game. Do you understand the frustration?" came the question.
"Yeah but I think we need to be clear on what I talked about," responded Frank. "I talked about after Vic, that I didn’t like. That is unacceptable. You can’t be after one player."
As the reporter tried to rephrase the question, the Dane said: "Let me finish. I think that is very important because if you want anyone to perform you need to be behind them. In my opinion, that’s what you get to get people to perform in the best possible way. After [the game], no problem."
The journalist asked: "I guess maybe it's part of the same thing. You want to come out and put on a big performance, get a big win, and within eight minutes the team is 2-0 down..."
This time Frank did the interrupting: "Six minutes. So your question is what?"
"Do you understand the fans' frustration after eight minutes when the team is 2-0 down?" said the reporter.
"Of course I understand. That's not what I said," replied Frank. "Completely I understand the frustration when it's not working. I think we were all a bit that it's going against us and it's frustrating in many ways, so that I understand. No problem."
When he later left the press conference, Frank glared at that reporter as he walked away from his seat.
Some will back Frank's support for Vicario, others will call it deflecting from another poor performance on his watch.
Very few of his players came out of the game with any credit in another Spurs match when individual errors reigned. Randal Kolo Muani showed the most endeavour and looked the most dangerous Tottenham player.
Archie Gray did not quite seem to understand his role in the first half but was improving in the second when he was taken off. Bergvall had the highest pass success rate on the pitch with 97% even though he tried to force matters. The Swede got an assist for the perfect pass to Kudus and Spurs lost something when he was taken off.
Otherwise most others were sub-par. Richarlison limped around a bit and didn't really impact anything.
Kudus was poor other than his excellent goal. He huffed and puffed, often beating one man before turning back inside to try to beat him again, and his crossing was even worse than Porro, with only two of his 16 attempts reaching someone in a Spurs shirt.
Kudus had been the shining light of Tottenham's early weeks under Frank but the Ghana international has not recorded an assist in almost two months and this goal was his first since early October.
There's no harmony at Tottenham right now. The players are shouting at each other. The fans are booing their own players, the club's £51million playmaker has not started the past three matches and did not exactly put forward his case to start the next one when he came on.
Frank is yet to get a handle on things. It's been three defeats in a week and any drops of positivity from within the PSG clash have now been flushed away by Fulham.
A trip to a back-in-form Newcastle awaits on Tuesday night and then comes the visit of Brentford, who sit above their former manager in the table. Lose both of those and the pressure really dials up on Frank.
But surely Spurs have to back their man otherwise their summer change after finally winning a trophy will look incredibly daft and CEO Vinai Venkatesham built a reputation for patience at Arsenal, which has benefited Mikel Arteta.
Frank needs to show more though and his irritation with some sections of the fanbase and the media belied perhaps that he knows it as well. Pointing back to last season's 17th place finish while tracking below it does him no favours.
The Lewis family are expected to back the club in the January transfer window but that feels like a lifetime away right now and Frank needs to prove that new signings are safe in his hands. He's only really playing three of his summer arrivals with any regularity and it's difficult to point out too many players who have improved under his tutelage yet.
It's a huge week ahead for the Dane and this latest iteration of Tottenham Hotspur. The fans are drained and the players look fed up just three months into the season. Nobody wants to jump on the same old Spurs cycle of doom, so something needs to change quickly for Frank and his team to succeed. Otherwise the wheel of Tottenham misfortune spins again.
