We also have to take Frank at his word when he said his selection of two direct forward players in Richarlison and Randal Kolo Muani was based around exploiting his opponents’ vulnerability.
“We wanted two strikers for the crosses, which we thought was an area where we could potentially hurt United,” said Frank, pointing to an early chance Richarlison wasted as evidence his selection was the right one.
But the former Brentford boss was also mixing his messages.
Frank felt Tottenham had done well to limit United to five shots.
Yet that, he stressed, was not the same as saying his defence had actually played well.
“I don’t think I said they played well,” he said.
“The two shots they had, maybe even on target, were two situations we probably could have done better in.
“We will, of course, look through that and go through the details.”
The biggest plus from a Tottenham perspective was they did not lose a third Premier League home game in a row, which also means they avoided a 10th home defeat in 2025, which would have been a record for a calendar year.
However, they have still only collected 14 points from their past 20 home games. No top-flight side has a worse record than that.
Still, on a strange day, when neither side played well but both contributed to a memorable game, taking the positives, for Frank, included not losing.
“We are playing at home and I know we need to win so we don’t talk about it [losing at home],” he said.
“But the way we stayed in the game in the second half and kept doing the right things, I am very happy with that.
“It was a game where both teams tried to cancel each other out a little bit.
“We always want to create a little bit more but you can flip it and say, hey, we scored two goals in a situation where it was difficult to create.”
