Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham boss Thomas Frank, speaking to TNT Sports: "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.

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

On Randal Kolo Muani's performance: "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."

On conceding five goals: "Of course, it will always be concerning when we concede four and five, but these 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."

Midfielder Archie Gray, speaking to TNT Sports: "We played against a top opponent tonight, they are probably the best team in Europe at the moment. There were some good moments we can take into Fulham.

"We scored some goals, there are things we can work on, but they are a top, top team, and there are moments you will suffer against them.

"They are the best team in Europe, and they are relentless in every aspect of their game, and they have that individual class. They are a top team, and there are things we can learn from."

Did you know?

• Tottenham Hotspur have conceded 4+ goals in back-to-back games in all competitions for the first time since May 2003 under Glenn Hoddle. Spurs conceded five goals away from home in major European competition for the very first time.

• Richarlison opened the scoring in this match in the 35th minute with Spurs' first shot, netting in three consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time since December 2023.

Phil McNulty
Chief football writer

Image source, Getty Images

Thomas Frank went into this tough assignment against the Champions League holders with his methods under serious scrutiny after the timid, conservative manner of Tottenham Spurs' defeat against Arsenal in the north London derby.

And yet Frank, and indeed his team, responded positively, as he ditched the five-man defence that drew so much criticism in favour of an orthodox back four afforded protection by Archie Gray and Rodrigo Bentancur.

For an hour, Spurs matched Paris St-Germain, leading twice, with one of the crucial moments their failure to protect a lead until half-time when they switched off, allowing Vitinha to equalise in spectacular fashion seconds before the break.

Even then, Randal Kolo Muani put them back in front before PSG hit the sort of roll that has done for better teams than Spurs in the Champions League.

Frank's team selection looked like it had one eye on Saturday night's home game against Fulham, which they will now go into with only three wins in 12 matches.

Joao Palhinha, Mohammed Kudus, Destiny Udogie and Wilson Odobert were on the bench, along with Xavi Simons, but for so long there was much to encourage Frank.

Spurs were positive, adopting a man-for-man strategy out of possession, showing more attacking intent in the opening stages than they did in the entire match against Arsenal.

The attitude was good but defensive carelessness, summed up when Pape Matar Sarr was robbed in possession before Fabian Ruiz put PSG in front for the first time, proved their undoing.

Spurs have now dropped to 16th in the Champions League table, making victory against Slavia Prague on the next match day vital.

Whether you were at the game or following from elsewhere, we want to know what you learned.

Have your say on Spurs' performance

Come back on Thursday for a selection of your replies

Phil McNulty
Chief football writer

Spurs head coach Thomas Frank makes five changes from the team well beaten in the north London derby at Arsenal.

Frank's formation will be intriguing, but Pedro Porro comes in for Destiny Udogie, Pape Matar Sarr is in for Joao Palhinha, Archie Gray comes in with Kevin Danso out, forward Randal Kolo Muani is in against parent club PSG with Mohammed Kudus dropping to the bench. Lucas Bergvall also starts with Wilson Odobert a substitute.

PSG XI: Chevalier; Zaire-Emery, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes; Joao Neves, Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz; Kvaratskhelia, Ndjantou, Barcola

Subs: Safonov, James, Beraldo, Zabarnyi, Ramos, Dembele, Lee, Hernandez, Mayulu, Mbaye

Tottenham XI: Vicario, Richarlison, Gray, Bergvall, Romero, Pedro Porro, Spence, Sarr, Bentancur, van de Ven, Kolo Muani

Subs: Kinsky, Austin, Danso, Palhinha, Xavi, Udogie, Kudus, Odobert, Davies, Scarlett, Thompson, Williams-Barnett

There are nine games in the Champions League on Tuesday, including three involving Premier League clubs, and BBC Sport will bring you every moment.

• Copenhagen v Kairat (17:45)

• Pafos v Monaco (17:45 )

• Arsenal v Bayern Munich - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

• Atletico Madrid v Inter Milan

• Frankfurt v Atalanta

• Liverpool v PSV Eindhoven

• Olympiakos v Real Madrid

• Paris St-Germain v Tottenham - listen on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

• Sporting v Club Brugge

Kick-offs 20:00 GMT unless stated

Follow all of the action and reaction here

You can also listen to 5 Live commentaries on most smart speakers. Just say "ask BBC Sounds to play Arsenal v Bayern Munich" or "ask BBC Sounds to play PSG v Tottenham".

Find out more about how to listen to football on BBC Sounds

Watch highlights of every Champions League game from 22:00 on Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

There will also be a Champions League Match of the Day on BBC One on Wednesday, from 22:40 to 00:00.

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Tottenham have been playing like an extremely efficient relegation-battler team this season.

Thomas Frank's side sit ninth in the league and are one of four teams tied on 18 points after 12 Premier League games.

Only Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea have scored more goals than Spurs so far this campaign, but in contrast, only Burnley have taken fewer shots (98).

Spurs do, however, have the best shot-conversion rate in the league.

Only Burnley, Sunderland and Aston Villa have a lower xG as well, so it is worth noting that Villa are getting results without playing very well too.

Switching to Spurs' defensive record, goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has been one of the best shot-stoppers in the league - only Crystal Palace's Dean Henderson (4.2) has prevented more goals than his 3.6.

However, only Burnley, West Ham, Nottingham Forest and Wolves have a higher xG against and only four teams have a better goal difference than Spurs' six.

A lot has been talked about Tottenham's struggles to progress the ball and create chances and here is a stat I've seen that sums it up remarkably: Spurs have made just four through balls in the Premier League this season, which is the fewest of the 20 clubs.

The Opta definition of a through ball is when a pass splits the opposition defence for a team-mate to run on to.

For comparison, Arsenal have made the most with 43, while even bottom side Wolves have made twice as many as Spurs (nine).

This highlights Frank's need to get players like James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski back as soon as possible.

Jordan Butler
BBC Sport journalist

Swathes of Tottenham Hotspur fans remain unconvinced that Thomas Frank is the right man to take the club forward, and those dissenting voices have grown louder after another listless performance in Sunday's north London derby.

Tottenham's lack of creativity has been something of a theme under Frank, and his switch to a back three/five was also heavily criticised. It remains to be seen whether he sticks with that tactical approach here, given that he employed a similar system in the penalty shootout loss to Paris St-Germain in his first Spurs game.

The Parisians were humbled by Bayern Munich in their last European outing – their only loss at the Parc des Princes this season – but they have never suffered back-to-back Champions League home defeats in their history. A deflated Tottenham look unlikely to alter that record on Wednesday.

Did you know?

• This is defending champions PSG's 18th Champions League campaign. They have featured in every season since 2012-13, reaching the knockout stages in all 13 of the most recent campaigns.

• The Parisians finished 15th in last season's league phase after four wins, a draw and three defeats.

• None of PSG's previous 103 Champions League matches have ended goalless.

Image source, Getty Images

Key PSG players - Nuno Mendes and Bradley Barcola

Portugal left-back Mendes is considered one of the best defenders in world football. He scored an exceptional goal in the 4-0 win over Atalanta in matchday one and added another in the 7-2 thrashing of Bayer Leverkusen on matchday three. The 23-year-old stepped up to score the winning penalty in PSG's Super Cup success over Tottenham after playing the full 120 minutes.

Meanwhile, Barcola was labelled a "very decisive player" by club captain Marquinhos. The France international will likely need to be, with Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue both sidelined. He has scored five goals this term, including one from the bench in Saturday's win over Le Harve.

PSG squad summary

Right-back Achraf Hakimi remains out with the ankle injury he suffered against Bayern in week four, and he joins Doue (hamstring) and Dembele (calf) on the sidelines.

Nick Godwin
BBC Radio London reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Thomas Frank and his Tottenham team have got themselves into a position of maximum danger.

They have somehow managed to save their worst two performances of the season for their recent games against Arsenal and Chelsea.

This, in the eyes of many fans, is simply unforgivable. They've been asked to be patient for a while now.

However you cannot play like that in those games and not expect an avalanche of criticism.

Talk of injuries, transitional periods and adapting to a new style of play simply falls on deaf ears when Spurs fans have to go to work on Monday morning knowing their Arsenal and Chelsea-supporting colleagues have enough ammunition for weeks of merciless ribbing.

It is not as though the defeats themselves have caused all this upset. Spurs fans have lost plenty of London derbies in the past.

But the abject nature of the losses, devoid of attacking intent, with no plan B and absolutely no powers of recovery, means this manager and this team have nowhere to hide in the face of overwhelming criticism.

So the situation for Thomas Frank and his side has changed very quickly over the past few weeks.

They have gone from diligently carving out a new identity for themselves to a full-blown crisis with unknown consequences.

Frank is now under huge pressure to improve results and performances immediately. His previous cover has gone. Meanwhile, this squad is under the microscope like never before.

Serious questions are being asked about whether some of these players are equipped to take the team back to a respectable Premier League position after last season's disintegration.

Everybody, all of a sudden, is on borrowed time.

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Tottenham boss Thomas Frank has been speaking to the media before Wednesday's Champions League game against Paris St-Germain at Parc des Princes (kick-off 20:00 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Franks says everyone is available from the squad picked at Arsenal.

• Reflecting on a chastening defeat against their biggest rivals, Frank offered: "I watched the game back, it was a hard watch. We were not good. The performance was not good and I am not running away form that in any way. The biggest thing for me but the most disappointing was we were not able to compete."

• He continued: "We had 53 situations where it was duels or second balls and we came out on top of 17 of those, lost 36. If you don't do that, it's the basic, it is very hard to win any football match. Very simple, we were not aggressive enough when we pushed forward or securing the ball, not landing in the areas where the second ball landed."

• The former Brentford boss said he was "convinced" Spurs will bounce back with a performance at PSG.

• Speaking about how his squad has reacted to the Arsenal defeat: "I think it's been two good days with talks and meetings. Mainly about us, how we improve, go forward. In football there are setbacks. It was a setback Sunday. It's all about how you react. One thing for sure, you are not going through life without setbacks."

• Frank was asked how important it is Spurs stick with a manager and give them time, responding with humour: "Very important. Part of taking this job was to sit here and have the challenges. Part of that is to manage those setbacks, learn from it and move on. One thing I am 1,000% sure of, I know how to build a team and a club and along the way we will do that."

• On Randal Kolo Muani: "He wants to perform. Every player wants to show their best. He came very happy to join Tottenham and then he got a dead leg that took longer than we thought. Then the broken jaw, so it's been stop-start. Plus he came and was fit but not top fit. So all that was him playing catch up. I am convinced we will see more and more from him. I like his link-up play, I think he is very good at that. His runs in behind and ability to go one-v-one."

• On criticism of his use of a back five at Arsenal: "I don't read anything, articles. We didn't win enough duels, we were not aggressive enough, going forward enough, if you play 4-3-3, 4-3-2-1, it doesn't matter if you are not doing enough of that."

• On three wins in 11 games and why it has unravelled: "Sometimes there will always be performances up and down. In 60 games in a season there will be 10-12 perfect, 30 average and then below that. It's about being competitive and then keep doing everything we can to be better and create chances to win matches. My teams will always score goals so we will keep working hard on it."

• Do Tottenham take enough risks? "I think we do. Maybe we should do more. I think it's fair to ask the question - we are not creating enough chances, which is reality. It's my job to make sure we do what we can to make more and more."

Read more on the Tottenham news conference here

Ali Speechly
Fan writer

Image source, Getty Images

"The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom."

No doubt Thomas Frank will have heard this Danny Blanchflower quote more times that he'd care to count. It is a shame he wasn't motivated by it for Sunday's North London derby.

Up until now I have enjoyed Frank's pragmatism. A welcome breath of fresh air after the recklessness of Angeball – early signs this season were that Frank had improved our defensive play, and players seemed clearer in their roles.

However, our struggle to score goals and now that disastrous performance at the Emirates has me questioning: instead of providing stability and confidence in his players, is Frank's pragmatism diminishing their courage?

In his post-match interviews, Frank maintained that it didn't matter which system he used because it was his team's inability to win the duels which ultimately cost them.

I would argue that it was precisely because of Frank's approach against Arsenal that Spurs were unable to compete with confidence.

Players need to feel psychologically safe in order to be brave in the battle. Instead, the negativity of Frank's system facilitated a fearful approach from the players; they sat back and waited for Arsenal to come to them, never truly looking convinced that they would withstand the inevitable waves of attack.

Simply put, Frank got it wrong in a game that means the most to the fans. Even so, I still want him to be given the time it takes to develop a team – particularly a squad that he has inherited, rather than selected.

Like it or not, we don't need to look too far across North London to see what managers can build if given enough time.

Find more from Ali Speechly at Women Of The Lane, external and on Instagram, external

On the latest episode of BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club, the panel discuss the building pressure around Tottenham boss Thomas Frank after Sunday's heavy defeat at Arsenal in the north London derby.

Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton described the negativity around Frank as "deeply unfair", adding that it is exaggerated because the loss was to a fierce rival.

With Spurs three points off of the top four, Sutton said the start to the season has not been "disastrous" and that questioning Frank's credentials to manage a bigger side is disrespectful.

Watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer and listen on BBC Sounds

Matthew Howarth
BBC Sport journalist

Image source, Getty Images

Ex-Tottenham midfielder Danny Murphy reflected on his former team's display at Arsenal:

"That was as dominant an Arsenal performance against Tottenham as I've seen for a long time. There was a massive gulf between the two teams.

"The Tottenham system with five at the back - be it a 3-4-3 or 5-4-1- can cause the other team problems if, when got the ball, they are brave enough to push wing-backs up a bit higher and get up the pitch to support the front three.

"But Arsenal's quality and physicality just pinned Spurs back. And of course after the second goal, which they felt a little bit harshly done by because of the men in front of the keeper, Spurs were then in a real predicament.

"If they came out and really went after Arsenal, they would have got cut to pieces but also 2-0 was a mountain to climb because the Gunners do not concede many.

"But they will be hugely disappointed - they didn't really lay a glove on Arsenal. Afer the first 20 minutes, they could have been braver, because they had given themselves a platform to do that.

"It is a huge disappointment for Tottenham to lose any north London derby but to lose it in the manner they did was very poor.

"They got completely overrun in the end really - outplayed and out-worked and didn't really hurt Arsenal enough.

"There was already a little bit of discontent at their home games. Now, because of that performance, that's going to grow. The players are going to have to stand up and be counted and Frank is going to learn a lot about his players in the next couple of weeks.

"He is going to learn who is up for it, who has got some courage and who wants to get on the ball and make things happen."

Read more over here

We asked for your views on Sunday's Premier League game between Arsenal and Tottenham.

Here are some of your comments:

Arsenal fans

Tim: Dominant performance. Controlled the midfield with Declan Rice outstanding. Eberechi Eze's finishes were deadly and 4-1 flattered Spurs. I have been watching Arsenal for 45 years and this is by far the strongest squad I have witnessed. One game at a time...

Vince: Could the stars be any more aligned? From the moment Arsenal hijacked Tottenham's move for Eze, to this weekend where he scored a hat-trick against them while both Liverpool and Manchester City lost, Arsenal have largely been in the ascendency. I'd be half preparing a victory party if this was game number 32 and not number 12!

Lew: Apart from Martin Zubimendi holding onto the ball a bit too long for Spurs to nick it and score, it was a perfect performance. It is a busy winter period with the games coming quick and fast but having depth in our team and our injured players returning, this will hopefully be the season we go all the way.

Chris: An excellent team performance with a starring role for Eze. However, I am always nervous when David Raya advances so far out of his goal. It might be necessary when we are not winning but not when we are. The Spurs goal was partly Raya's fault. He needs to know that we do not need to take risks when we are well ahead. Here, the mistake energised Spurs though they were all huff and puff and failed to trouble us. When you have an opponent on the ropes keep them there and don't take unnecessary risks.

Tottenham fans

Chris: Thomas Frank's plan went wrong. We played long and failed to win the first duels and seldom picked up any second. The pressure did not stop. We played two defensive midfielders who failed to control the space outside the penalty box. It would appear whoever we play up front, the players are distant from each other in mind and body. The game was lost by the 46th minute. It will be a hard watch if we do not find some cohesion, quality and fight.

William: Our performance was one that would not have looked out of place in the Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte regimes - only that Frank does not have Kane and Son to rely on for the counter-attack. There is very little cohesion between the defence and attack, while we seldom looked like scoring, besides Richarlison's moment of magic.

Barrie: We should not be surprised because the squad is not too different from the one we had last season under Ange Postecoglou. Its the old adage of 'if you keep things the same, you should expect the same outcome'. We don't have enough players of high quality to compete consistently with the top sides".

Simon: Give Frank a chance. He has inherited previous mangers signings, missed out on Morgan Gibbs-White and Eze and no doubt then had to bring in a few signings and loans that were not first choices. He is missing Dominic Solanke, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski plus Son left in July. Frank builds high energy teams with a strong front three. Give the bloke a chance!

Pundits Danny Murphy and Joe Hart and join host Gabby Logan to bring you the action and talking points from Sunday's Premier League fixtures.

Watch on BBC iPlayer here

And listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

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• Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham