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Thomas Frank apologises to Tottenham fans after ‘extremely painful’ 4-1 defeat to Arsenal

Thomas Frank apologises to Tottenham fans after suffering an ‘extremely painful’ 4-1 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday night.

Leandro Trossard opened the scoring for the dominant hosts 10 minutes before half time. Eberechi Eze doubled their lead before the break, then made it 3-0 35 seconds into second half.

Richarlison netted a superb long range goal to cut Tottenham’s deficit, but Arsenal prevented from Spurs from sparking their comeback with Eze completing his hat-trick in 76th minute.

The result sees Arsenal move six points clear at top of the Premier League, 29 points from 12 games played, while Tottenham are 9th with 18 points from 12 games.

Tottenham’s Thomas Frank speaking to Sky Sports: “I think it is extremely painful. I won’t talk away from that. It was a bad performance. It was completely the opposite of what the intention was when we came here. We can only apologise to the fans for the performance. I think no matter if both teams wanted to play shirt, they got more out of that and we couldn’t get out. When the team went long, we didn’t win enough duels. That is exemplified by the 2-0 goal and the 3-0 goal, where a player went through two or three players. Bad performance and we lost.

“I have seen a lot of character and fight in this team but we didn’t win enough duels. We can call that whatever we want but we didn’t win enough.

“I tried to play a 5-4-1. I will always take responsibility as my choice in the end to take the system then and we changed it at half-time. My vie won it is that no matter what formation we play today, we don’t have enough duels or intensity in the decisive moments, and it is very difficult to win a football match.

“The goals I want to see more in detail. The whole game I need to watch tonight an it will be a difficult watch. We were not aggressive and stepped forward when we could and they played it round us.

On lack of creativity: “That has been an ongoing theme that we are working hard to improve. It doesn’t look good today or against Chelsea. We need to keep working on it.

“There were a lot of things in this game we need to do better. We are four months into it and they are further in their journey as a team and that was very obvious today. Of course there will be noise. We played against our biggest rivals and we lost badly. But we keep noise out and we focus. I know this tam is very competitive. I know this team is competitive and we showed that against Man City and PSG. Of course it looks bad today and it was not good enough.”

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank speaking to BBC Match of the Day: “Very difficult afternoon. Bad performance. It’s extremely painful to stand here after that game. We can only apologise to the fans for not performing better. I was very confident we could be competitive today. We weren’t. That we need to look at with a cool and calm head and work out what we need to change.

“We didn’t succeed to be aggressive enough and we didn’t win the duels.

“One thing for sure is that in hindsight everything is much easier. I take always the full responsibility for the performances. That I need to look back to. We changed things at half-time, it was a tiny bit better, but the game was already over at 3-0. It doesn’t matter what system we play if we don’t win our duals.

“No matter how painful it is, and of course this is the most painful defeat of the season, there are things we can take out of this game.”

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to BBC Match of the Day: “It’s a very special day for us. We knew the importance of the match and what it means to our fans. To be able to give them that joy, it’s a beautiful day.”

On Eberechi Eze becoming only the fourth ever player to score a hat-tick in the North London derby: “That tells you about the difficulty and what he’s done today. To be fair he could have scored four or five. He’s a big player who can create magic moments which unbalance a team.

“We dominated every part of the game. We created massive chances and had a lot of actions that we were very close to scoring. We stayed patient.

“Whoever we put in there they do the jobs for us. This squad has the belief and quality to deliver consistently.

“We have really good momentum but you can see how difficult every game in the Premier League is. It’s a long run, let’s go game by game. Let’s enjoy tonight, then we have Bayern here and Chelsea away. We have a tough week.”

Arteta speaking to Sky Sports: “I enjoyed every minute of it. The preparation since they came back from the international break, the enthusiasm, he joy, the hunger. And then when you are able to play in the manner we played and performance in the manner we did and to win with the goals that we scored against our rivals always leaves a very special day.

“We certainly wanted to impose ourselves sin every department but it has to start with intensity and the duels. They’re a very good team and we have to earn it. We started really strong and really intense and created a big chance with Declan straight away and we had to be patient. We looked very dominant and then in the second half we maintained the consistency. There are things to improve but it was a great performance.

“We prepared (for a five-at-the-back) and obviously we didn’t know. The moment we got the line-up, we made the judgement that we had to make and then the players delivered an incredible performance.

“We tried to understand how they can be thinking and what we believe they could do. Our job is to be prepared and then simplify the gameplan as much as possible. Then the players have to deliver and they certainly did that today.”

Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario to Sky Sports: “A very bad night for us. First of all we have to apologise to the people that support us every day. They expected us to fight and today we didn’t fight. That’s not negotiable to do in football in this level.

“It’s a tough night, a very bad defeat, but we have to stick together. We have a big night on Wednesday but we need to stick together. Tonight we didn’t show the things we are normally capable of.

“The emotions are high, but we need cool heads and apologise to the people that support us and have travelled today.

“I think we waited too much to get into the game. We were too passive. The game plan we prepared was different. Today we didn’t fight. We have to apologise first of all for this. But we have to stick together and move on because on Wednesday we have a big night.”

On Arsenal’s second goal: “I think the way the game went it wouldn’t have changed anything. There were three people in front of me so of course they impacted me. But we didn’t lose the game for that.”

 Eze to BBC Match of the Day: “That is crazy. Special day man. Special day for me, my family.

“I don’t think I could’ve ever dreamt of it. This is more special than that. I can only thank God. Special day, man.

“We were prepared for whatever set up they were coming with because of the diligence of our staff. Huge credit to them. And of course the players in our team, the ability, the talent, from whatever angle we’re threatening to score goals.

“Good performance, good three points and a special day.

“I probably should’ve scored four to be honest. I’m always trying to score, always trying to take my chances. It’s important to be relentless.

“We’re focused on ourselves, we’re focused on putting in our work every day. It’s not by chance that we perform like this.”

Here’s how Twitter reacted as Thomas Frank apologises to Tottenham fans after the ‘extremely painful’ 4-1 defeat to Arsenal…

@GaryRWard: The worst “performance” of the season for me. I could find some positives from Bournemouth, Wolves, United at home, even the smallest against Chelsea, but this is on another level. 2nd best, on the pitch & in the dugout. Absolutely awful from start to finish. A lot of work is needed at this club from top to bottom.

@Rose_THFC: You know I often think that it can’t get worse and I’m really glad Tottenham keep me grounded and remind me that it always gets worse it always gets so much worse the rings of despair always go deeper the reaches of torment are unknowable and it’s because of this stupid team

@WhingerSpice: The player we couldn’t sign, scoring a hat-trick against us in a derby thrashing… just poetic for how perpetually tragic this football club is. I expected defeat, but somehow it always manages to exceed expectations.

@Superspurs131: What were you expecting playing 7 defensive players and not crossing over the half way line.. It was cowardly, tactically inept and the worst approach to a NLD I have ever seen… Our only shot was from the half way line!… That’s exactly what I ‘expected’ seeing that line up

@mattpage2000: Gutless and spineless, two words that are becoming far too regular to describe our performances this season.

@JAGBASSI10: It’s truly horrible watch this set is of players fall so much. At least under the old manager we would try and win games, despite having a long list of injuries. I’d rather lose trying to win than losing trying not to win. Awful performance, the worst I’ve seen in a derby.

@PAFCOYS: Bale, Gazza, Berbatov, Hoddle, Kane. All the names printed on the back of shirts over the years. can’t think of a current player I’d want on the back of a shirt. I really feel for any young spurs fans.

@thfcbilly__: The worst NLD performance I’ve ever seen cracking that lads 👍

@g2mcc: No doubting Arsenal are a class team but when you set up to contain with zero ambition you need things to go your way and they didn’t. The second goal definitely shouldn’t have stood but realistically we were dominated from start to finish. Frank has to do better.

@ConorMac34: Lack of quality is one thing… Lack of fight is unforgivable, particularly in a Derby. Awful. #COYS

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