• Blues take the spoils in London derby

  Spurs were dominated by Chelsea at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and deserved to lose by more than just the one goal. The Blues took the lead in the first-half through Joao Pedro and never looked like surrendering their advantage over their London rivals. It marked yet another defeat for Spurs, and another in front of their faithful home support, as they notched up their 42nd loss in the Premier League at their new ground since its opening in 2019 – only six fewer than north London rivals Arsenal have lost at the Emirates, a stadium opened in 2006.

  With just four home victories in the Premier League in all of 2025, Thomas Frank has a lot of work to do to turn around Spurs’ misfortunes. While the Lilywhites tasted their first piece of silverware in decades in the summer when they lifted the Europa League, the club have remained disappointing domestically. After a club record-low 17th-place finish in the Premier League last season, the club have become used to disappointment and it may more than just a new managerial appointment to heal the rot at its heart.

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  Vicario vents frustration

  After a series of consistently poor displays, Vicario is growing frustrated. The Italian has been one of the club’s better players in the last two disappointing seasons and issued a passionate assessment of how the side have been performing.

  Speaking after the defeat to Chelsea, via Football London, Vicario said: “It’s tough to accept but this is the reality of today’s game. We need to look inside us and we need to do more because when you play for this club, we have to do things at 100 per cent. I know it’s tough but we have to do that every single day.

  “When you go inside it’s tough to accept because you expect yourself to perform at your best, with a lot of energy but something today didn’t go in the right direction.

  “Everyone knows that personally, we have to do a little bit more if we want to achieve good results, make everyone happy and make ourselves happy. Today is a bad day for us, we didn’t perform at our best level.”

• Frank plays down defenders’ snub

  Frank’s task in north London is looking increasingly difficult as the weeks go by. The former Brentford coach had made a decent start to life at Spurs, but a number of flat performances and defeats has turned up the heat under the Dane. The fractious atmosphere at Spurs was made clear after the defeat to the Blues, with a video of Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence snubbing Frank’s approach on their way to the dressing room circulating on social media soon after the full-time whistle.

  The defenders appeared unhappy with their boss and did not hide their feelings towards Frank when they stormed off the pitch. Shocked by their response, Frank was left rooted to the spot as he watched in disbelief as the duo shunned him. The incident played out under a cacophony of boos raining down from the terraces.

  Speaking after the game, Frank was keen to play down the incident. He said: “All the players are, of course, frustrated. They would like to do well, they would like to win, they would like to perform. I understand that.

  “I think it’s difficult to be consistent in good times and bad times, that’s why I went around to the fans as I did, it’s more fun when we win, I can tell you that.”

  When pressed for his opinion on Van de Ven and Spence, the Dane remained diplomatic and defended his players. “We have Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence doing everything they can,” he said. “They’ve performed very well so far this season. Everyone is frustrated. We do things in a different way, I don’t think it’s a big problem.”

AFP

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