Tottenham Hotspur

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Thomas Frank spoke to the media at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after our 2-1 loss against Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday evening.

Here's what he had to say...

How did you see the game?

Thomas: "Definitely conceding two goals in six minutes gives us a mountain to climb. I think it is the classic thing when you are in a bad spell or a tough spell, things go against you. The first one is a deflected shot and the second one is a mistake from Vicario. It happens.

Then we rushed first half. I think the team was a little bit shell shocked after the two goals. Big ambition to do everything right and come out and turn it around and get that home win, and then you are 2-0 down it just makes it so difficult and they are human beings. We rushed it too much. Second half, I liked much more. Scored a good goal, had opportunities to score the equaliser. Unfortunately couldn’t get it.

Have you spoken to Vicario?

Thomas: "No, but I will."

The formation felt overloaded on the right...

Thomas: "That’s true."

What was the thinking behind that?

Thomas: "I wanted two strikers in and around each other, which looked good at times but of course the game plan was definitely way more difficult after the 2-0."

Do you understand the fans' frustration?

Thomas: "Yeah but I think we need to be clear on what I talked about. I talked about after Vic, that I didn’t like. That is unacceptable. You can’t be after one player. I think that is very important because if you want anyone to perform you need to be behind them. In my opinion, that’s how you get people to perform in the best possible way. After, no problem."

You want to come out and put on a big performance, get a big win, and within six minutes the team is 2-0 down. Do you understand the fans' frustration after six minutes when the team is 2-0 down?

"Of course I understand that. That's not what I said. I understand completely 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."

Do you sense a disconnect between the players and the fans?

Thomas: "I think the players, I, everyone want to get the win here. Nothing we want more. And I hope the fans can see that they were running out there today, giving everything. But football is so beautiful and complex. It's 11 players that need to be in sync and play and run at the same time and there are small setbacks during games, you need to get through it and stick to the plan, stick to the bits. Sometimes it's just more tough. Sometimes you're in a spell where it's difficult, which it is right now. But there's only one way, it's going forward and do everything you can to get out of it together. So, there's only one thing, we keep going and do everything we can to win the next home game."

You mentioned with the formation, you didn’t want too much on the left, wanted the two strikers and more on the right - does that not leave you too predictable that everything will go down the right if Fulham can lock that off?

Thomas: "Yeah, 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."

With that first half in mind, are you worried the players are not taking on board your messaging?

Thomas: "No, I am not, because I think we have seen clearly other times it has worked much better. Maybe we haven’t been absolutely free-floating, but it looked much better. I think it is isolated in two different games. The Arsenal game was hopefully a big one-off in terms of the overall performance. I think PSG it looked like they took on board my messages it is fair to say and second half, it looks like they took on my messages. I think this game we are 2-0 down after six minutes with all the nice, good questions that we want to do so well to get back on track. I think there are so many things into it."

Thomas Frank was left to rue two goals conceded in as many minutes inside the first six minutes against Fulham - a double hit that ultimately cost us as the Cottagers ran out 2-1 winners of our Premier League clash on Saturday evening.

Despite the fact a comeback looked on in the second half as Mo Kudus pulled a goal back and we piled on the pressure, the damage had been done as Kenny Tete’s deflected shot and Harry Wilson’s strike into an empty net from Guglielmo Vicario’s clearance left us with a mountain to climb at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

“Of course, this is a tough one,” Thomas told us afterwards. “We prepared everything, players ready and then after six minutes we're down 2-0. That's a classic example when a team is struggling a little bit and it's not straightforward, smooth, the momentum and the easy wins… maybe not dropping for you as you want sometimes, and then you concede the first one on deflected shot and the second is a mistake from Vic.

“In the first half, how can you say, we rushed it too much because we got maybe a bit shell shocked, whatever, you really want to do well and then you're rushing it too much. In the second half I think more cool, created more, scored a good goal, created opportunities, could have got the 2-2, didn't get it.

“I see players who badly want to turn it around, badly want to do everything they can to get the win here in front of our fans, make them happy and proud of the team. Sometimes you just have a spell that is tough and we just need to keep working through it, keep going forward, keep doing everything we can to improve it - then we all know we will turn it around.

“Now, tomorrow it’s about debriefing the game, giving some messages, then we need to move forward. We need to learn from this game but can't dwell too much on it because we need to be on for the next one. There's a new opportunity on Tuesday night in Newcastle.”

We suffered a London derby defeat on Saturday evening as we couldn’t recover from conceding two goals in the opening six minutes to Fulham.

A spirited second half saw Mohammed Kudus reduce the deficit with his first home goal in our colours just before the hour mark and we created chances to draw level but couldn’t convert them, ultimately going down to our fourth home league defeat in seven games in N17 this season.

We made four changes from the midweek Champions League outing against PSG, with Kevin Danso coming in for the suspended Cristian Romero, Destiny Udogie replacing Djed Spence, Joao Palhinha in for Rodrigo Bentancur against his old club and Kudus replacing Pape Matar Sarr.

After the positive performance in the French capital, hopes were high of picking up a positive result against a Fulham side that hadn’t won away from home in the league this term. But that optimism faded quickly as we found ourselves two goals behind in six minutes, the quickest we had ever fallen 2-0 down in Premier League history. There was certainly some misfortune about Fulham’s first goal after four minutes, with Samuel Chukwueze miscuing his intended pass to the edge of the area to Kenny Tete and yet it wrong-footed Lucas Bergvall and still found his man, with Tete’s right-footed strike clipping the inside of Udogie’s leg and sneaking into the bottom corner.

That was a setback, but we suffered even worse two minutes later. Guglielmo Vicario beat Raul Jimenez to a long ball over the top, tried to play forwards when clearing into touch probably would have been the better option, but found Josh King with his clearance. He popped the ball wide to Harry Wilson some 35 yards out by the touchline and he produced an excellent first-time effort which bounced into the empty net.

We tried to respond quickly and went close when Joachim Andersen almost diverted Kudus’ cross into his own net before Archie Gray dragged a shot wide however, had it not been for Micky van de Ven, it would have been 3-0. With 26 minutes gone, Chukwueze nicked the ball off Pedro Porro and was in on goal, rounded Vicario and was about to roll the ball home when our skipper on the night slid in with a superb tackle to deny him.

The remainder of the half saw us dominate possession as we searched for a way back into the game, plenty of crosses coming into the box – mostly from the right flank – but we didn’t really work Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno, with van de Ven firing high over the bar the closest we came.

We needed a fast start in the second half and almost got it when Pedro Porro’s cross landed nicely for Randal Kolo Muani but his effort from 10 yards out was blocked by Calvin Bassey, before the French forward sent a glancing header from another Porro centre into the side-netting. It was all us at this stage and we got the goal we needed in the 59th minute with a rocket from Kudus. Bergvall lifted a lovely ball in to him in the inside right position and Kudus lashed a rising right-footed shot past Leno at his near post.

That changed the whole mood of the game and the stadium and we almost scored a second with two chances in quick succession. First, Andersen made a diving block to prevent Xavi Simons’ 12-yard shot from finding the bottom corner and, from the set-piece, Bergvall’s glancing near-post header was going in until Jimenez headed off the line at the far post.

A Kevin Danso long throw almost led to an equaliser with 10 minutes remaining, Udogie with the blocked shot before Kolo Muani stole the ball off Tete and then sent a back-heel just past the post. But for all our possession in the second half, Fulham still carried a threat and Vicario had to save low down after Kevin’s effort flicked off Danso on its way through. We tried to apply pressure in the closing stages but, in truth, couldn’t really build up a head of steam and the visitors were able to deal with our attacking threats as we suffered another disappointment on home soil.

Drew Spence supplied an assist in Jamaica’s remarkable 18-0 win over the Dominican Republic on Saturday evening, which kicked off their CONCACAF Championship qualifiers in style.

Starting the contest at Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia, the experienced midfielder got herself involved in the action in second half stoppage time to provide Shania Hayles her goal.

Receiving the ball on the edge of the box, she sent a lovely weighted chipped pass over the defence and into Hayles inside the area on the left who slotted home at the near post to round off an impressive evening for the Reggae Girlz.

Drew completed the full match for her nation.

The result sees Jamaica, unsurprisingly, go top of Group B on goal difference in their CONCACAF Championship qualifiers after the opening game, with Nicaragua also on three points after their 4-0 win over Antigua and Barbuda.

Clean sheet for Tōko Koga

A clean sheet for Tōko Koga’s Japan helped them secure a 3-0 win over Canada in their friendly encounter on Saturday morning.

The young defender was in from the start to earn her 28th cap as Momoko Tanikawa fired her nation into the lead just two minutes before the break.

Then, six minutes after the restart, Japan had their second of the game through Mina Tanaka to give them a healthy advantage in the contest before Aoba Fujino rounded off the scoring on 68 minutes.

Having recorded seven clean sheets in Lilywhite across all competitions since joining in the summer, the 19-year-old can now add another one to her tally this term as she was part of the backline that kept Canada at bay across the 90 minutes.

Elsewhere, Sophie Jackson was a late second half substitute for England Under-20s as they were defeated 4-1 by USA earlier this afternoon.

Adewole frustrated not to edge competitive north London derby  Tottenham Hotspur

We can confirm the team news for tonight's Premier League clash against Fulham at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (kick-off 8pm).

Thomas Frank has made four changes to the team that started at Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League in midweek.

Joao Palhinha is restored to the starting side to face his former side with Kevin Danso, Destiny Udogie and Mohammed Kudus also coming into the team. The suspended Cristian Romero is ruled out and Djed Spence, Pape Matar Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur are amongst our substitutes.

Micky van de Ven will wear the armband in Cuti's absence.

Here’s our team in full...

Starting XI: Vicario, Danso, Palhinha, Richarlison, Udogie, Gray, Bergvall, Kudus, Pedro Porro, van de Ven (c), Kolo Muani.

Substitutes: Kinsky, Xavi, Tel, Johnson, Spence, Odobert, Sarr, Bentancur, Davies.

Spurs U18 vs Arsenal U18 | Key Highlights | 2025/26  Tottenham Hotspur

New for this season, our Official Matchday Programme brings fans a collection of photos sourced from a deep dive into our Mirrorpix photography archive, most of which have never been seen before.

We'll bring you a taster of the gallery here on tottenhamhotspur.com...

Next up, Fulham in Saturday's late kick-off in the Premier League (8pm UK).

Above - Jimmy Greaves sends a header goalwards in our navy away kit during our 4-3 win in west London in October 1966.