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This is going to be one of the most interesting transfer windows at Tottenham Hotspur for years.

Spurs have had an inconsistent start in the Premier League under Thomas Frank, with fans increasingly anxious about poor performances at home. The Spurs squad does not look as strong as it has in recent years, with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min not replaced, and Spurs’ best attacking players out injured.

This means that fans are waiting to see if the new hierarchy at the club — since the departure of Daniel Levy in September — can deliver the higher quality of player that they all want to see at Spurs in 2026 and beyond.

The information found within this article has been gathered according to The Athletic’s sourcing guidelines. Sources with knowledge of transfer dealings, who asked to be kept anonymous to protect relationships, have been spoken to before offering the clubs involved the opportunity to comment.

Who will make key decisions over the two windows?

This will be the first window since the radical restructuring that Tottenham have had this season.

In September, chairman Daniel Levy was dismissed after almost 25 years running the club. Then, in October, Fabio Paratici officially returned to the club in a new role as sporting director, alongside Johan Lange, who was promoted from technical director into the same role.

Last month, Paratici and Lange, along with CEO Vinai Venkatesham, travelled to the Bahamas for long-planned planning meetings with the majority-shareholding Lewis family. January will be the first transfer window of this new era.

What positions will they be looking at in 2026?

The evidence of this season so far suggests that Spurs are short in midfield and in attacking positions, so it would only be natural for them to look for upgrades there.

Much will depend on the return from injuries of Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski, with James Maddison likely to be out for longer. If Solanke and Kulusevski can hit the ground running, then there might be less need for another centre-forward or a creative midfielder in the market.

But right now, the Tottenham squad looks weaker than most of its competitors. And fans will be hoping for a statement of intent from the Lewis family in their first window since Levy’s dismissal.

Are there any players they are already looking at?

Perhaps the most intriguing case concerns Antoine Semenyo.

Tottenham were interested in the Bournemouth winger in the summer, making an enquiry for him, and were told by Bournemouth that he would cost £70million ($92.7m). Semenyo then signed a new contract, but The Athletic’s David Ornstein revealed last month that he has a £65m release clause active this January.

There are currently no indications that Spurs will move for him again in the window, but he would certainly be an exciting option for supporters.

Who will they be looking to sell?

Yves Bissouma has not played a single minute for Thomas Frank yet this season, although part of that is down to an ankle injury.

But he nearly left Spurs over the summer, and it would be a surprise if he is not back on the market in January, even though he is coming into the final six months of his contract.

What moves have they made already?

January will see the arrival of Mason Melia, the 18-year-old Irish striker. Spurs agreed a £2million deal with St Patrick’s Athletic in February for the teenage forward, who then played the whole League of Ireland season with St Pat’s.

Melia finished the season as the second-top scorer in the league, with 13 goals, as St Pat’s finished fifth, just outside the European places. Melia has also shone for the Republic of Ireland Under-21s.

The fascinating question for the second half of this season is whether Melia will come straight into the first team group, competing with Dane Scarlett, whether he will play with the Under-21s or whether he might be considered for a loan move away.

Which players’ contracts are expiring? Who will they renew?

One of the biggest moments of this season so far was Spurs captain Cristian Romero signing a new long-term contract at Tottenham, after a summer of interest from Atletico Madrid.

Now that his future is secured, the focus will turn to Micky van de Ven. The Dutch international centre-back signed a six-year contract when he arrived from Wolfsburg in 2023, meaning that Spurs are under no pressure to renew.

But given Van de Ven’s excellent form this season, Tottenham want to reward him with a new, improved deal.

What is their PSR position? What sort of budget do they have?

Tottenham’s PSR position has always been strong because of the club’s healthy commercial and matchday revenues, their return to the Champions League, and the fact that they have traditionally run a very controlled wage bill.

The question of budget will be a fascinating one, given that this is the first window since Levy’s departure, with Spurs fans hoping that the Lewis family find a way to make a major statement of intent.

What will be the manager’s priority?

Thomas Frank has not spoken publicly yet about what he wants from the transfer window, but it feels like the team needs more goals and more threat from midfield.

Spurs missed out on Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze in the summer, ending up with Xavi Simons, who is yet to make much of an impact on the team.

Frank was also interested in his former Brentford forwards Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, although they went to Manchester United and Newcastle United, respectively. It would only be natural if he were to want more attacking upgrades in January.

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank is “very confident” he will be given time to improve the team’s performances.

Spurs are 12th in the Premier League table and have taken only four points from their last six games and have lost three matches in a row across all competitions.

Frank’s side were beaten 4-1 by north London rivals Arsenal, suffered a 5-3 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and conceded twice inside the opening six minutes in Saturday’s loss to Fulham. They have not won a league game at home since victory over Burnley on the opening weekend of the season.

The Danish head coach believes he has the support of the club’s majority owners, the Lewis family.

“I think the ownership — of course I’m just starting to know them — but it seems like they’re good guys, intelligent people,” Frank said in his news conference ahead of Tottenham’s game at Newcastle United on Tuesday.

“They know how to run businesses and learning about football, learning more now they’ve become owners. I think when we’re dealing with intelligent people they can see every successful dynasty, every successful club has taken time.

“Yeah you have one where you maybe win one year or the second year, but you can’t sustain it if you don’t build something sustainable. Impossible.”

Spurs are missing key players through injury, including Dominic Solanke, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, but fans are growing frustrated and have booed during multiple home games.

Frank was hired by chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham and former executive chairman Daniel Levy who was removed from his role in September after 24 years.

During the defeat to Fulham, sections of the crowd booed and appeared to ironically cheer goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario after he made a mistake in the build-up to Harry Wilson’s goal. Frank described the supporters treatment of Vicario as “unacceptable” and said “they can’t be true Tottenham fans”.

Frank said of his comments on Monday: “When I said the ‘not true Spurs fan’, what I meant by that just to make it clear was the mocking of one of their own players.

“He makes a mistake and there is a little bit of booing after that, as I remember it. The next ball he clears and there is like a cheering. You can’t do that. The opponent can do that, you can’t do that as a fan. That’s where I would stand by what I said. The booing during the game I don’t think is helpful, (but) we are all different.”

Frank spent nearly seven years in charge of Brentford before he joined Spurs in June, replacing Ange Postecoglou on a three-year contract. Postecoglou was sacked two weeks after winning the Europa League which was Spurs’ first piece of silverware in 17 years.

Welcome to matchday 14 of The Athletic’s Premier League predictions challenge, where the games are now coming thick and fast.

We have entered a six-week period that will see 80 Premier League matches played. That’s more than one-fifth of the campaign squeezed into 41 days.

This is when seasons can be defined, when momentum can be built up or squandered irretrievably — and that applies as much to our predictions table as it does the real Premier League.

Each week, four of us — a guest subscriber, an algorithm, six-year-old Wilfred and I — are predicting the Premier League results.

We’re awarding three points for a correct scoreline and one point for a correct result. There’s also a bonus point for any correct “unique” prediction, so the algorithm got four points for being the only one to predict a 1-1 draw between Chelsea and Arsenal.

And that bonus point allowed the algorithm to leapfrog me and return to the top of the table after a two-week hiatus in which I blew the opportunity to move clear.

The table is now incredibly tight, with only seven points between the four of us. Wilfred’s excellent recent run continued with five correct results and a bonus point for being the only one to predict Brighton’s win at Nottingham Forest.

Our guest subscriber, Kian, got four correct results but was let down by his own team, Forest. Wilfred and the subscribers are now level on 81 points, with young Wilfred placed higher because he has had more correct scoreline predictions.

This week’s guest subscriber is Ben, a Wolverhampton Wanderers supporter from Walsall.

Over to you, Ben.

Our subscriber’s match of the week

Wolves vs Nottingham Forest, Wednesday, 7.30pm UK/2.30pm ET

Ben says: Admittedly, almost all Wolves fans have lost hope that this most miserable of seasons can be salvaged, but a win against an improving Forest could at least muster some positive momentum for Rob Edwards' tenure as manager. Alas, our distinct lack of quality makes it almost impossible to forecast where our first victory is going to come from.

Wolves 1-1 Nottingham Forest

Oli says: When Derby County ended the 2007-08 season with just 11 points (one win, eight draws, 29 defeats), it looked like a record that would not be broken in the Premier League. But Southampton came close last season (12 points) and this season Wolves, at their current rate, are on course for just six. But they’re not that bad, are they? Are they? Even in defeat at Aston Villa on Sunday, there were some encouraging signs for their new coach Rob Edwards. Perform like that against Forest and they won’t lose. Well, they might not lose.

Wolves 1-1 Nottingham Forest

The rest of Oli's predictions

Fulham vs Manchester City

Fulham’s record against Manchester City since the start of 2012: played 18, lost 18. They haven’t beaten the Manchester club since April 2009, which is so long ago that City had Mark Hughes in charge, Richard Dunne in defence, Kelvin Etuhu in midfield and Valeri Bojinov in attack. Fresh from an excellent win at Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham might fancy their chances. It could be a tight game. Tight enough for Fulham’s needs? Perhaps not quite.

Fulham 1-2 Manchester City

Bournemouth vs Everton

Everton have never won a league match at Bournemouth. They had never crossed paths in the league until Bournemouth’s promotion to the top flight in 2015, but even so, a record of two draws and six defeats in eight league visits since then is pretty grim Both clubs had such a miserable weekend — Everton beaten 4-1 at home by Newcastle while Bournemouth fell to a 3-2 defeat at Sunderland from 2-0 up — that it’s not easy to imagine either of them bouncing back convincingly on Tuesday.

Bournemouth 1-1 Everton

Newcastle vs Tottenham

It’s been such a strange season for Newcastle United. An emphatic win at Everton on Saturday looked like a corner had been turned, but then again, so did the victory over Manchester City, which was followed by a disappointing Champions League defeat in Marseille. Playing two games a week has been a struggle, but then the same applies to Tottenham, whose form over the last couple of months has been dreadful. It looks like the kind of game — opposition, kick-off time — that Newcastle should relish.

Newcastle 2-0 Tottenham

Brighton vs Aston Villa

This should be an excellent game between two teams in impressive form. Brighton & Hove Albion, in fifth place, have taken 10 points from their last four matches and Villa, in fourth, have taken 18 points from their last seven. Logically, Villa appear better equipped to puruse Champions League qualification. It won’t be easy, but a win on the south coast would be a significant statement of intent from Unai Emery’s team.

Brighton 1-2 Aston Villa

Burnley vs Crystal Palace

A Tuesday night in December doesn’t seem the ideal time to play Burnley at Turf Moor. For Palace, it’s the fourth in a run of 14 games in 47 days and there are signs that Oliver Glasner’s players are starting to feel the strain. It’s the type of game where Burnley really need to get something after four straight defeats.

Burnley 1-1 Crystal Palace

Arsenal vs Brentford

Forgive me for not indulging the narrative-friendly idea that Arsenal’s title challenge is faltering after two draws in their last three Premier League games. Injuries to William Saliba and Gabriel are a concern, as is Saturday’s trip to Aston Villa and a congested fixture list, but I don’t see much fragility in Mikel Arteta’s team at the moment. As impressively as Brentford are playing, this looks like a routine home win. Caveat: perhaps less routine if Saliba is not fit in time to return.

Arsenal 2-0 Brentford

Leeds vs Chelsea

In theory, this is the kind of fixture that should bring out the best in Leeds United. As Beren Cross wrote, their spirited second-half performance at Manchester City on Saturday offered hope even if the game's climax predictably brought disappointment. Chelsea’s confidence should be high after a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Sunday, but a three-day turnaround is difficult and they will be without the suspended Moises Caicedo. It should be an interesting test for Enzo Maresca’s team.

Leeds 1-1 Chelsea

Liverpool vs Sunderland

The weird thing about the terrible run Liverpool have been on is that, while they have lost nine of their last 13 games in all competitions, their four wins in that period have been genuinely impressive. At West Ham United on Sunday, it was all very controlled and composed for a team supposedly in the midst of a crisis. Players such as Ibrahima Konate and Alexis Mac Allister, who have struggled this season, showed no hint of their previous struggles. Every time they have led in any game this season, they have won. It is when they fall behind that they seem to turn to jelly. A high-flying Sunderland team will pose far more serious questions, but if Liverpool score first, they will probably win.

Liverpool 2-1 Sunderland

Manchester United vs West Ham

With the table so congested, winning games can change a team’s mood and prospects significantly. Manchester United were 12th going into last Sunday’s game at Crystal Palace, but by coming from behind to win at Selhurst Park, they climbed to seventh, just four points behind second-placed Manchester City. At some point this season, they will find a buoyancy level. At the moment, that feels likely to be between, say, fifth and 10th. But with no European or Carabao Cup commitments, they have a lighter schedule than most of their rivals and an opportunity to push on and set their sights higher. West Ham, on Sunday’s evidence, are unlikely to trouble them.

Manchester United 2-0 West Ham

Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football.

This was the weekend when Manchester City squeaked a win over Leeds United, Newcastle United put their woes behind them by thrashing Everton, Brighton & Hove Albion moved into Champions League contention and Manchester United impressed in beating Crystal Palace.

Here we will ask if everyone was pleased with Chelsea and Arsenal’s draw, what Mohamed Salah’s omission from the team that beat West Ham United means for Liverpool and Arne Slot, and whether Thomas Frank is picking the wrong fights.

Was anyone (or everyone?) a winner from Chelsea 1 Arsenal 1?

Draws are inherently unsatisfying. The point of this game is to win, so when neither team manages that, even the neutral is usually left feeling a little short-changed.

However, was everyone a winner from Chelsea and Arsenal’s 1-1 draw on Sunday?

Let’s start with us neutrals. There is something about a late afternoon Sunday game at Stamford Bridge that feels quite visceral and exciting: remember all of those games against Liverpool or Manchester United in the late 2000s/early 2010s, when it was basically dark by the time the game kicked off and you witnessed a pair of juggernauts slam into each other? Heady days.

That’s a bit how this one felt, two of the best three teams in the country slugging it out in a game that was aggressive, perhaps lower than you’d like on actual quality football, but nonetheless grittily enjoyable. Plenty may take the opposite view, and will have been unable to properly enjoy a game that didn’t exactly display the slickest play and finest skills, but a game doesn’t have to be ‘good’ to be entertaining.

Then there’s Chelsea. That’s easy: while they have title ambitions and thus will have been gunning for a win, there’s no way they can’t be satisfied with a draw against probably the best team in Europe, having been down to 10 men for two-thirds of the game.

Even Arsenal. Mikel Arteta expressed mild frustration to the media that Arsenal hadn’t won, but acknowledged that it has been a hell of a week, and they’ve come away with seven points from games against Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich and Chelsea. They did it without a bunch of key players, too — they didn’t have either of their first-choice centre-backs against Chelsea, plus started without a specialist striker or their captain and key creator.

And finally, Manchester City. They might have laboured to a 3-2 win against Leeds, a promoted team who look in danger of going straight back down, but the draw means that they are the closest challengers to Arsenal. They’re five points behind, which, considering the fragilities they have shown at various stages and Arsenal’s apparent lack of them, is not too bad.

So if it’s possible for everyone to be satisfied with the outcome of a game, then this one comes as close as any.

Does leaving out Salah mean more to Liverpool than just this win?

We’ll get the caveats out of the way first.

This is not a good West Ham team, despite their hints at something more competent since Nuno Espirito Santo’s arrival. There was also the significant help from one of the more brainless and pointless red cards you’ll see, as Lucas Paqueta managed to talk himself into getting sent off and thus kill any prospect of West Ham mounting a successful comeback.

But after a calamitous run that saw them lose six of their last seven Premier League games, drop out of the title race and put their Champions League qualification in doubt, Liverpool won’t care about the quality of the opposition.

That the win came partly thanks to Alexander Isak’s first league goal since his £125million ($143m) move in the summer is a bonus, as is maybe Florian Wirtz’s best game in a Liverpool shirt — but arguably more significant is that it took place without Mohamed Salah in the team.

It was a weekend for big selection decisions that paid off: Eddie Howe did what many Newcastle fans have been demanding for weeks and dropped Nick Pope, while also picking Anthony Elanga up front, and was rewarded with a 4-1 win. Likewise, Salah was left out of a Premier League starting XI for which he was fit and available for the first time since April 2024. He didn’t come off the bench either, making it the first time he has played no part in a league game for which he was fit and available since June 2020.

Did Liverpool win the game because they dropped Salah? Maybe, maybe not. Their performance was much improved, but their team remains imbalanced, and it’s tough to attribute the victory to any one decision.

This doesn’t mean that Salah should be left out and all of their problems will be solved, but what it does mean is that by taking this tough decision, Arne Slot has ensured that Salah can just be regarded as another player now. He is a sacred cow no longer. Maybe he’s in the team, maybe he’s not, just like Hugo Ekitike or Cody Gakpo or Isak. That frees Slot to make decisions based on the needs of each game, rather than being dictated by a player’s reputation or the disparity between how good he used to be versus how good he appears to be now.

Has Thomas Frank picked an avoidable fight with his own fans?

On the one hand, it’s nice to see a manager stick up for a player who has seemingly been singled out for criticism. When players get abused, it’s the manager’s job to help pick them up,

On the other, you wonder how wise it is for that manager to seemingly pick a fight with his club’s fans, when so many of them are unhappy not so much with that individual player, but with the manager himself.

After goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario’s embarrassing mistake that handed Harry Wilson the chance to score Fulham’s second goal in their 2-1 win against Tottenham on Saturday, a significant proportion of the home fans specifically booed the goalkeeper. And Frank wasn’t happy.

“I didn’t like how the fans reacted to that,” Frank said. “They booed at him straight after and also three or four times when he was on the ball. 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.”

The immediate frustration with Vicario will be fleeting. The bigger problem is results, and Frank’s are terrible at the moment, particularly at home: they have played seven games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this season and won just one. Only Wolverhampton Wanderers, already well on their way to a fairly ignominious relegation, have a worse record on their own patch. It’s a hangover from last season: since March, Tottenham have earned 10 points at home.

So you can see why the fans are annoyed. Yes, they were irritated at Vicario’s blunder and perhaps didn’t express that constructively, but in reality, that was a funnel through which they were expressing their broader dissatisfaction.

At best, you could say that Frank misread the mood from a place of good intention. But more likely is that he has picked an avoidable fight with a group of fans who, in some cases, are even pining for Ange Postecoglou. And that sort of thing rarely ends well.

Coming up…

There are so many problems and so many shortcomings with Thomas Frank’s Tottenham Hotspur that you could spend all day analysing the things that went wrong against Fulham on Saturday, and have been going wrong for much of this season.

But at the heart of it is one glaringly simple and obvious fact: their home form is unsustainably bad.

It is not sustainable to be averaging less than one point per game at home, a record better only in this season’s Premier League than Wolverhampton Wanderers. This is not a problem Frank created — Spurs were dismal at home in the second half of last season — but it is a problem that Frank has not been able to fix. It is barely even a truism to say that if you lose most of your home games, you are in deep trouble.

It is not sustainable to create so little in front of your own fans, to give them so little to cheer and believe in, that their confidence in the new era erodes from game to game. This was not as bad as the Bournemouth and Chelsea home defeats. Both of those two games were abysmal, and this was merely very bad. Perhaps this was closer to the Aston Villa defeat or the 1-1 draw with Wolves. But the fact that Spurs’ home record this season already contains so many flavours of misery tells a story of its own.

It is not sustainable for Spurs to be taking almost three-quarters of their points (13 out of 18) away from home, meaning that only their die-hard away support have got to experience this team’s better moments. If you have a season ticket here and do not travel away, you will have still only seen one league win under Frank, against Burnley on the opening weekend. That was more than three months ago.

And it is not sustainable for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to be as toxic as it was on Saturday evening, where the home fans were booing Guglielmo Vicario after a mistake that led to Fulham’s second goal. This was the first time the home crowd had turned on a Tottenham player since Davinson Sanchez almost three years ago, and Thomas Frank said afterwards that it was “unacceptable” to boo a player during the course of a game, and that they could not be “true Tottenham fans”.

The sight of Pedro Porro storming off at the end with a face like thunder was a reminder of how much the players must hurt, too, from defeats like this. But Frank is meant to be here in part to rebuild a sense of culture, of unity around shared goals. And nothing could be more corrosive to that than nights like this one, when the fans are openly mocking their goalkeeper during the course of the game after one bad error.

But as keen as Frank was to defend Vicario, the reality is that his booing by the crowd was not an incident that can be understood in isolation. It is better understood as an eruption of the frustration that has been simmering here for some time. Because this home record is not just a Thomas Frank problem. Go back over Spurs’ last 22 home league games — a run dating back to the first half of last season — and they have only taken 17 points from a possible 66. Since they beat Aston Villa last November, the only league wins here have been against Manchester United, Southampton and Burnley. Fans are fed up with paying so much money to see their team play so badly.

There has been plenty of debate about the atmosphere and how best to improve it on matchdays. But the answer is simpler than you might think. The best method to generate a good atmosphere at a football match is to play well. Nothing else can match that. The 4-0 win against Copenhagen on November 4 is a case in point.

So the solution to all this has to come from the team, and ultimately from Frank himself. Nothing that the manager or the players say between now and next Saturday, when Brentford come to Tottenham, will matter half as much as how they play. And even if they get a result in Newcastle on Tuesday night — and that does not feel likely right now — they will need to give their base something to cheer too.

The real problem for Frank is how many fans feel the team is getting worse rather than better. Everyone accepts he has taken a hard job at a difficult time, that the Spurs squad is patchy even when the best players are all fit, which they have not been this year. But people still want to see an upward trend, and even if they do not see that, they want a sense of what the destination is meant to look like. And this is not just a theoretical point; part of the reason why fans were so patient with Mauricio Pochettino when he started slowly at Spurs 11 years ago is because the ideal end point of his football was so clear from day one.

And yet the two very worst games of Frank’s tenure at Spurs — Chelsea and Arsenal — were not in August but in November. These are still the two lowest team xG totals, 0.1 and 0.07, respectively, in the league this season. Frank talks about “adding layers” but none of those layers feel solid. Yes, they were better in the first half at PSG in midweek, pressing high and creating chances, but this game was a leap in the wrong direction. And even the layers that ought to be permanent — not least defensive stability — look increasingly shaky now. Fulham could easily have won this game by more than they did.

None of which means that Frank is doomed or that he cannot turn this around. He is a popular figure at the club, and there is patience for his long-term project. But there are only so many times you can get booed off at home before you lose your standing with people. The credit with the fans that Frank started with has now reduced to zero. He will have to earn it back himself.

Tottenham Hotspur suffered yet another home defeat as they lost against Fulham on Saturday night.

After three minutes, Samuel Chukwueze burst down the left and played a low cross into the box. The ball made its way to right-back Kenny Tete, whose strike hit Destiny Udogie and flew into the Tottenham goal.

Fulham doubled their lead just two minutes later. Guglielmo Vicario, out of his goal, played a dreadful clearance straight into the path of Josh King, who laid it off to Harry Wilson to curl into an empty net.

Spurs improved in the second half, and Mohammed Kudus dragged Spurs back into the game. Lucas Bergvall clipped a pass over the Fulham defence before the Ghanaian hit an excellent half-volley past Bern Leno. Spurs, however, were unable to score a second, making it four games without a win.

Here, The Athletic’s Jay Harris breaks down a defeat that leaves Spurs in 10th place in the Premier League.

Why did Tottenham fans boo their own goalkeeper?

Tottenham’s supporters are fed up with their awful home form, and right now, it does not take much for them to voice their frustration. However, it felt counterintuitive and harsh that they constantly booed Vicario after his mistake which led to Wilson’s goal.

You could hear it straight away when the ball was passed back to the 29-year-old from kick-off, but it did not stop there.

A few minutes later, Vicario rushed out of his area again, and the crowd ironically cheered when he smashed the ball into the stands. It brought to mind the uncomfortable way Spurs fans used to treat Davinson Sanchez. It was a horrific error from Vicario, but they should have backed him — and Sanchez in the past — to make up for it.

Vicario is a member of the squad’s leadership group and will often face the media after Spurs lose games. He apologised to the supporters after last weekend’s defeat to Arsenal in the north London derby. He shows far more accountability for his actions than captain Cristian Romero as well as Micky van de Ven, who wore the armband against Fulham. When Van de Ven and Djed Spence walked straight down the tunnel after the 1-0 defeat to Chelsea, Vicario clapped the fans with Bergvall.

Frank said after the defeat to Chelsea that he understood why fans booed after the game, but they should always back the team during it because they can give them an extra push to score a goal. He was completely right, but they ignored him.

All of this underlines how disconnected the fans feel from the team at the moment.

Can Frank take control?

Spurs have lost three games in seven days since they returned from the November international break.

Expectations were low before Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, but they needed three points against Fulham. The way they were smothered in the opening 15 minutes is hugely concerning.

One of Frank’s biggest strengths during his time with Brentford was his tactical flexibility, but it feels like a weakness now. He came up with bespoke plans for opponents, but it is much harder to replicate that with Spurs because they play multiple matches a week and barely have time to train. He keeps changing systems with Spurs, but has not worked out his strongest starting XI yet.

Spurs are awful at home. They have won three games out of their last 21 in the league. And things do not get any easier: they travel to St James’ Park on Tuesday to face Newcastle United, and then Frank has an awkward reunion with his former employers Brentford.

It feels like there are so many issues to address. The £60million ($79.5m) summer signing Xavi Simons rarely starts, goals from set pieces have dried up, and their defence, which looked solid at the beginning of the season, has fallen to pieces.

Pedro Porro looked furious at full time when he stormed down the tunnel and whipped his shirt off. Frank needs to grasp control of this situation as soon as possible.

A poor start costs Spurs again

Fulham pummelled Spurs in the opening 15 minutes. Thomas Frank used the same 4-4-2 formation which showed flashes of promise in Wednesday’s 5-3 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, but they were completely overrun.

Frank likes to use a man-marking system, and Fulham took advantage. Kevin Danso and Micky van de Ven were being dragged high up the pitch and out of position by Josh King and Raul Jimenez, which left huge pockets of space behind them.

Fulham’s first goal came from Danso’s header being intercepted in the centre circle. One simple pass released Samuel Chukwueze down the left wing, who teed up Kenny Tete. Minutes later, Harry Wilson’s effort came from an awful mistake by Vicario.

They were lucky it did not get any worse. Chukwueze hit the post with a shot from the edge of the box, and Van de Ven made an incredible tackle to prevent him from scoring after he skipped past Pedro Porro and Vicario.

This was a game Spurs desperately needed to win and, not for the first time this season, a slow start proved their undoing.

What did Frank say?

He told Sky Sports: “When you’re down 2-0 after six minutes, there is a mountain to climb. When you’re in a bad spell, everything seems to go against you as well — the first was a deflected shot, the second is a mistake from Vic [Guglielmo Vicario].

“I didn’t like that our fans booed at him straight after and a few times after that. They can’t be true Tottenham fans because everyone supports each other when you’re on the pitch and we do everything we can to perform.

“I’m fine with them booing after the match, no problem, but not during. That is unacceptable in my opinion.”

What next for Spurs?

Tottenham may have put in a more positive display against PSG than against Arsenal on Sunday, but they came away from Paris defeated in an eight-goal thriller despite twice taking the lead.

Richarlison headed in during the first half after a great team move from Spurs before an incredible strike from Vitinha just before half-time drew the hosts level.

Randal Kolo Muani, playing against his parent club, put Spurs back in front before Vitinha again drew the teams level with another lovely finish. Two poor goals to concede followed, though, as the early promise from Spurs evaporated. Kolo Muani made it 4-3 before Vitinha completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot after a handball. PSG then had Lucas Hernandez sent off in stoppage time.

After the derby defeat on Sunday, this performance against the Champions League holders brought some positivity but Frank and supporters will still be concerned by the manner in which they conceded.

Spurs now have eight points from five Champions League league-phase games, with PSG on 12 points.

Jack Pitt-Brooke and Elias Burke break down the talking points from the game in Paris.

What were the positives for Frank?

This was Spurs’ second defeat in four days, and they conceded even more goals tonight (five) than they did on Sunday (four).

At points, they looked casual and shambolic at the back, making mistakes that will always be punished by the reigning European champions. Defending like this is not remotely sustainable. And yet despite all of that, there were far more positives to take from this game than there were on Sunday.

Frank proved he can get the team to press high in a concerted way, even against a good opponent, as they did for much of the first half. Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall provided energy and purpose in midfield, two things that Tottenham have lacked this year. The front pair worked well and caused PSG problems.

The challenge will be to take the good bits of tonight into Saturday’s game with Fulham, but none of the bad bits.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

How did Vitinha score that?

PSG were firmly second-best for much of the first half, as Tottenham's intense press stifled their attempts to build out from the back. But world-class players influence matches even when things aren’t going well, and that’s what Vitinha did brilliantly on the stroke of half-time.

Quentin Ndjantou, making his first Champions League start, took advantage of Spurs being slow to react to the possibility of a short corner, receiving a pass near the top-right corner of the Spurs area.

The 18-year-old then slid the ball towards Vitinha, who was unmarked at the top of the semi-circle on the edge of the box.

Then, with the ball travelling across his body, the Portugal international approached the ball face-on and struck a powerful effort which cannoned off the underside of the crossbar and into the bottom-right corner of Guglielmo Vicario’s goal, putting the home side back on level terms at 1-1.

To approach a moving ball face on and swipe across it, with limited backlift, is a technique of the very highest order. Minutes away from going into half-time behind in consecutive Champions League matches, Vitinha produced a moment of magic.

He then went on to add a second and completed his first senior hat-trick from the penalty spot.

Elias Burke

How did the Richarlison and Kolo Muani combo work?

Centre forward has been a problem position for Tottenham this season. Dominic Solanke has still not started a game all season, after having surgery on an ankle injury.

Richarlison has not convinced, working hard but often looking sluggish and imprecise. Kolo Muani took time to get fit and has yet to score in the Premier League. But Frank decided to start them both together, for only the second time, and it worked well.

Both men worked hard, trying to press PSG high up and stop their possession game. And they combined well for Spurs' first two goals. First, Kolo Muani headed Archie Gray's cross at the far post, setting up Richarlison to nod in. And then at the start of the second half, Richarlison kept alive Pedro Porro's corner at the far post, Gray competed for the ball and Kolo Muani volleyed in. One goal each, and a good night's work for Spurs' big man/big man tandem act up front.

And then, when the game looked dead, Kolo Muani drove through the PSG defence to bag his second of the night. Three goals shared between the two strikers, and a good night of work.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

What did this tell us about PSG?

It was far from vintage for Luis Enrique’s side, but after the 2-1 defeat at home to Bayern Munich last time out, it’s a positive step towards automatic qualification for the knockout stages.

PSG were better in the second period, but did not reach their sweeping and brilliant best. Granted, Enrique is without Desire Doue, who won player of the match in last year’s Champions League final, and started the match with Ndjantou leading the line, who is yet to score his first career goal. If not for sloppy defending and build-up play from Spurs (as well as Vitinha’s excellent hat-trick), PSG loanee Kolo Muani may have stolen the headlines at the Parc des Princes, bagging a brace and an assist against his parent club. Fortunately for the hosts, however, Spurs gifted them at least two of their five.

With their fourth win from five games, PSG are in the top three and among the heavy favourites to reach the Puskas Stadium in Budapest for the final in May. Luis Enrique will be under no illusions that the team must improve before then, and there are a number of stars sidelined with injuries, but if the league phase is worth nothing more than ensuring you qualify for the knockout stages, PSG are well on their way.

Elias Burke

What did Frank say?

Speaking to TNT after the game, Thomas Frank said: "I am very pleased with the performance. Today was much more the identity of the team, the bravery and aggressiveness of the team. There were lots of positives, the two strikers scoring three goals between them, the whole team performed really well. The performance was to get something out of the game but then you need to have the margins with you but we can't concede some of the goals we did.

"Of course it will always be concerning when we concede four and five but these (PSG and Arsenal) were two completely different games. This was more of what I want. Today we competed. Today was a team with soul and character and you need that."

He added that he felt Vitinha "is the best midfielder in the world. He will be the next Ballon d'Or winner".

Speaking about the performance from Kolo Muani, Frank said: "It can definitely be a turning point but the two goals will give him confidence going forward. He has struggled a bit with confidence but now he is looking better and better."

What next for Spurs?

Tottenham Hotspur were issued an apology from WSL Football after TikTok influencer GK Barry made an anti-Spurs comment during the Women’s League Cup draw.

The apology came after a chaotic quarter-final and semi-final draw for the Subway League Cup on Tuesday, which also featured Barry making a number of innuendos and mistakenly placing a ball back into the bag.

The draw for the Subway League Cup was hosted by influencer Barry and her partner Ella Rutherford, who plays for Portsmouth. The draw was streamed live on TikTok, with Barry responsible for drawing the balls and Rutherford providing context.

However, the draw’s conduct was criticised by both fans and clubs. Barry opened the draw with a crude remark. She then smacked the bag holding the draw balls against her backside, adding: “Give it a shake, a spank for luck.”

Later, Barry pulled a ball out of the bag, before placing it back into the bag. She then pulled the ball back out — revealing Tottenham’s number on it — and asking on camera whether she could do so, before adding: “I’ve done it now, it’s too late. Oh, I picked up the same ball.”

Sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, indicated an adjudicator was present at the draw and confirmed that it was the same ball pulled out of the bag. Otherwise, a redraw would have been required.

Afterwards, Barry asked: “What do we think of Tottenham?” to her partner — a reference to an anti-Spurs chant popularised by Arsenal fans.

According to sources, Tottenham have since received an apology from WSL Football regarding the comment, emphasising it was not appropriate.

Due to being streamed live on TikTok, there is no official replay of the draw on the WSL’s official social channels, though fans have recorded clips.

Other clubs were also the subject of jokes during the draw. Barry asked how good certain teams were while also asking what colour kits are worn by Liverpool and Chelsea. The draw ended with Barry making another innuendo as she referenced the competition’s sponsor Subway.

When fans complained about the difficulty in following the draw and requesting graphics on screen for guidance, Barry joked that she required a larger budget.

The thinking behind recruiting Barry, who boasts over four million followers on TikTok, for the draw was engagement with a new and younger audience.

League Cup holders Chelsea will travel to Liverpool for the quarter-finals. WSL leaders Manchester City will travel to West Ham United, while Manchester United will host Tottenham Hotspur. Arsenal will host Crystal Palace, who are the only WSL 2 representatives to make it to the quarter-final stage.

The winners of Liverpool versus Chelsea will face the winners of City and West Ham, while the winners of Manchester United versus Tottenham will face the winners of Arsenal versus Palace.

Former Tottenham Hotspur defender Mauricio Taricco has said he will resign as assistant coach of South Korean champion Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors after being handed a five-match ban for allegedly making a racist gesture during a K League game.

Taricco, 52, was sent off by referee Kim Woo-seong during the match against Daejeon Hana on November 8 for vehemently protesting against a penalty decision. During a confrontation with the official, Taricco placed his index fingers next to his eyes, in a gesture interpreted as racist and reported to the league’s disciplinary committee.

On November 19, the committee banned Taricco for five games and fined him 20 million won ($13,646).

The Argentine, who is assistant to Jeonbuk head coach Gus Poyet, denied he was being racist, and insisted he was asking the referee if he had seen the incident.

As part of a statement on the Jeonbuk website, Taricco said: “I have worked with many people in many countries and have lived and socialised with them without any problems related to their culture or race, and I have considered this a blessing.

“However, I have now been branded a racist by ‘self-proclaimed’ authorities due to a single misunderstanding where the context, cultural expressions, and meanings of all situations I continuously explained were ignored.

“My life, regardless of nationality and race, must continue in a place where there is safety, respect, peace, and equality before the law as a football person, so with a heavy heart, I have decided to leave this place after the end of this season.

“I would like to express my gratitude to the club and players with whom I could share success and history, and I am truly grateful to the fans who have given me unwavering support. I will not forget you.”

Jeonbuk, who clinched a 10th K League title in October with five games to spare, conclude their season with the Korean Cup final against Gwangju on December 6.

The club said it had concluded, after a “comprehensive and objective” review, that “it would be unreasonable to view (Taricco’s behaviour) as an intention of racial discrimination”, and planned to appeal the disciplinary committee’s decision.

“The club expects a more objective and balanced judgment to be made through the appeal process and will do its best until the end so that Coach Tano (Taricco) can quickly get out of this dishonorable situation and his memory of the K League and Korean football does not remain as a bitter pain,” read a Jeonbuk statement.

According to Reuters, a K League statement confirming Taricco’s ban last week, read: “Coach Taricco’s actions were identical to the widely known ‘slant-eye’ derogatory gesture against Asians and sufficiently inflicted feelings of racial insult on the recipient.”

Taricco spent four seasons with Ipswich Town before moving to Spurs in 1998, where he spent a further four years and played alongside Poyet.

The defender finished his playing career with Brighton & Hove Albion before going into coaching.

Arsenal went into the north London derby on Sunday without their first three options up front.

Viktor Gyokeres was ruled out, joining Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus — both of whom have yet to play this season — in the treatment room. The only solution was for Mikel Merino to reprise his role as Arsenal’s effective No 9. Incidentally, Arsenal were also without their biggest threat at set pieces, Gabriel.

Curiously, amid all these problems, Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank decided the best course of action was to beef up his defence with the addition of an extra centre-back, Kevin Danso, moving to a back five for the first time in the Premier League. This felt like an unnecessarily negative move, and prompted a simple question: who would all these centre-backs actually be picking up?

Well, for long periods of the game, the answer was… no one.

In this respect, it feels like Arsenal have learned their lessons from a 1-1 draw at Manchester United last season. That was another occasion when Arsenal fielded Merino as their highest player. The problem on that day, though, was that Merino played as a ‘proper’ No 9, high up against three centre-backs who were comfortable battling against him. He surely needed to play deeper, as a false nine, to drag opponents out of position.

And, sure enough, whereas Merino was theoretically leading the line against Tottenham, really, he was dropping off to become an extra midfielder.

At times, the situation felt unusual. Here are two Tottenham attackers primarily concerned with Arsenal’s two holding midfielders, and then Tottenham’s defensive midfielders primarily concerned with Merino and Eberechi Eze, Arsenal’s front two. Spurs’ defenders had no one to mark.

And while Merino didn’t score, he played his role perfectly, free to drop deep and receive the ball.

He spent most of the first half moving towards the right flank, allowing Arsenal to play forward passes and for him to dribble up the pitch. OK, the consequence is that Arsenal didn’t offer any permanent penalty-box threat, but this helped them put constant pressure on Tottenham, who barely got out of their own half.

A couple of minutes after that incident, Arsenal did something similar, and Micky van de Ven clattered into the back of Merino.

A small incident, but one that showed Tottenham’s defenders were being tested in a positional sense.

And while Merino was the most advanced player, really, he was just a decoy. He occupied defenders and dragged them up, but the movement in behind came from elsewhere. In fact, it came from everywhere.

Arsenal’s first chance came when midfielder Declan Rice raced in behind onto an Eze chip.

A few minutes later, it was holding midfielder Martin Zubimendi suddenly making a burst into the channel, with Danso tempted forward to close down left-back Riccardo Calafiori. The pass from Leandro Trossard didn’t come.

Next up, it was the full-backs. With Merino and Eze occupying Van de Ven and Cristian Romero, and Destiny Udogie watching Bukayo Saka on the outside, Jurrien Timber makes a sudden burst in an attempt to reach a Zubimendi chip over the defence. Udogie, in fairness, covers well.

This time, when Zubimendi was on the ball, Merino and Eze were between the lines. Calafiori tried a similar run, almost becoming Arsenal’s centre-forward despite starting from left-back. Zubimendi played a simple square ball instead. But the constant runs in behind were coming from everywhere.

Next up, it’s the wide players running in behind.

Spurs’ back three again have no one to mark, and Zubimendi drives forward on the ball, which slightly commits Van de Ven towards him. That opens up space for Saka to run into — again, Zubimendi could have been more positive here.

And then, finally, the goal comes from a run in behind and a chip over the top. And this is the perfect example because the man receiving the ball in the centre of the pitch, completely unmarked, is Merino.

He’s not a striker, he’s a false nine. His ball in behind is weighted perfectly, and Trossard was able to bring the ball down and, via a deflection, find the bottom corner.

After that, of course, it was the Eze show — finding space in front of the Tottenham defence to crash home a brilliant hat-trick with three goals struck from a similar position.

But the key was that opening goal; the longer Tottenham held out, the more Arsenal would become frustrated and start lobbing crosses into the box. But Arsenal had a game plan, involving Merino, and stuck to it.

“I think he was incredible again, we are asking him to do a lot of things to play as a No 9, and do the things that a No 9 has to do,” said Arteta. “But he is such an intelligent player, and his desire to contribute and make others better is so big.”

But it was surely about more than acting as a No 9. Merino’s key contribution was playing deeper than expected, leaving Spurs’ defenders with no one to mark, and finding space between the lines to deliver a perfect chipped assist for the opener.

Here, he was as much a midfielder as a striker, with the goalscoring threat coming from a rotating cast of others.