Fortunately wasn’t able to watch the game. I’m having a break for a few weeks so won’t be posting any of my usual stuff until mid March

"I like to be positive, I like to play offensive football." One thing I hope we can leave behind in the Frank era is the amount of time we delayed from long throw-ins. Under Frank we were the 5th slowest in the league at restarting play from throw-ins

Mansfield's FA Cup shock win over Burnley means there could be an opportunity to see Tottenham loanee Oliver Irow in the Fifth Round. (Thread) Data via Respo Vision

Our last PL win was against Palace in December. Despite 3 pts it was clear that the type of performance wouldn't lead to sustainable results in the future. To me this has been on the cards for months, now made worse by further injuries, squad deflation and the boards naivety with signings in Jan

Our Man of the Match tonight

Bit of a meaningless stat due to the red card impact, but Lisandro Martínez (who was impressive today) made the same number of successful passes from the midfield 1/3 to the attacking 1/3 than our entire team combined.

We are top of the league… for cards

Adding the xG context too

Similar to Liverpool earlier this season the game was more so in our control prior to the red card

Frustrating way to concede. Seen it on a number of occasions that teams leave a spare player on the edge that we leave unmarked

Xavi Simons is not only getting more touches in the attacking 1/3, but in recent games those touches have increasingly come in central attacking areas, unsurprisingly leading to more chance creations and his best performances.

Where that 2nd half performance came from I do not know

Another impressive performance from Xavi Simons, who really stepped up despite so many injuries. He had the most touches and progressive passes of any Tottenham player and had more touches in the attacking 1/3 than any player (including City).

In terms of duels, it was a game of two halves. In the first half we won 46% of ground duels vs 55% in the second half.

Xavi Simons recorded 46 touches in the attacking 1/3 vs Frankfurt, it was the highest of any player from either team, but also his highest match tally of the season.

Stat Leaders is now available, allowing you to see the top 10 players per game for the following metrics: - Touches - Touches in the Attacking 1/3 - Completed Passes - Key Passes - Passes into the Attacking 1/3 - Progressive Passes - Defensive Actions - Expected Threat (xT)

João Palhinha completed 102 passes vs Eintracht Frankfurt, the first Tottenham player to hit 100+ this season. (Previous highest was Kevin Danso with 82 vs Fulham)

Data from all of tonight's games is now available via: spursplstatsman-match-analysis.streamlit.app

Another comfortable result in the Champions League

Cristian Romero played as the central CB in a back 5 tonight and completed more progressive passes than any other player (14). He played as the LCB vs Burnley and completed just 3.

113 completed passes in the attacking 1/3 is our 2nd highest under Thomas Frank (our average under Frank is 68 per game). Explore more visuals from the game via: spursplstatsman-match-analysis.streamlit.app

Introducing my Player & Team Pass Actions App🚨 Visualise player & team pass actions for every Premier League game 2025/26. Includes Champions League & Europa League matches Likes, retweets and any feedback much appreciated. Link: spursplstatsman-match-analysis.streamlit.app

Another game where I was panicked every time Vicario was on the ball. 79% pass completion today. In the past I would give context as to how this compares to other keepers but unfortunately fbref is a sad sight now.

Conor Gallagher with just 2 completed progressive passes today, quite clear that he is an 8/10 and not a double pivot 6.

Think today was a perfect example of how relying on picking up points through set pieces and transitions is not sustainable. When you face teams like Burnley who want you to have over 60% possession, we struggle. Again ended up relying on crosses and our CB's for goals.

*3

As it stands this is 2 out of a possible 15 points from Brentford, Sunderland, Bournemouth, West Ham and Burnley. Embarrassing

Fewer posts recently due to FbRef news and focusing on the viz dashboard which will allow you to explore and create visuals of any player from this season's games (not just Tottenham specific). Last time vs Burnley, Cristian Romero completed the most progressive passes (9).

I will still be posting match relevant content, but damn this kills a lot of interesting ideas that I had

Hard to be too critical based on the Bergvall injury and lack of bench options, but we did really struggle for any sort of control in the 2nd half (which I think is fine tonight, but a common trend across the season).

Hard to take many learnings from the game based on the circumstances, but a very professional performance from our two youngsters in midfield.

Xavi Simons' Numbers vs Borussia Dortmund

Conor Gallagher's Numbers vs West Ham

Missed the game yesterday, and not had a chance to catch up yet. How was Conor Gallagher's performance? As expected, his progressive passing numbers didn't stand out vs our midfielders.

Yesterday we attempted 43 crosses, more than double our season average of 21. It was also the most crosses attempted since we made 52 vs Nottingham Forest last April.

It’d be a big piece of work, but if there’s interest I can try to build a Streamlit app that gives access to all the visuals I share and lets you explore games/players I haven’t posted about.

Tottenham Hotspur vs West Ham United Stat Preview: - El Hadji Malick Diouf's 3 assists is the most of any West Ham player, however he will be unavailable due to AFCON. - Lucas Paqueta & Mateus Fernandes lead progressive and final 1/3 passes but both could miss out due to injury.

Tomorrow's opponents West Ham have used 30 different players in the Premier League this season, the most of any club. In comparison to Tottenham who have used just 23, the 3rd fewest.

Pedro Porro has been our fastest recorded player in the Premier League this season. Data via @driblab

Top 10 Fastest Premier League Players 2025-26 No Micky van de Ven... Data via Driblab

Conor Gallagher will be joining what is already quite a physical midfield. Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall both rank in the top 5 Premier League midfielders for distance covered per 90 (11km). Data via Driblab

This season Thomas Frank has opted to use our defensive players (Romero, Porro & Spence) for progression, rather than our midfield.

Reassuring to see we are going after a midfield profile we are severely lacking.

Adding last season's Tottenham data for comparison shows that Rodrigo Bentancur can be a good progressive passer when in a system that actually attempts to play football, but still highlights that we’re missing a top level midfielder.

After conceding twice from outside of the box against Villa earlier in the season I expected us to be more proactive today. Was frustrating particularly in the 1st half to see how many shots Villa were able to get off.

Couple more views to show that despite the goal and a 20 minute spell in the 2nd half, the final result was justified.

Quite a crazy game from Palhinha, he had the most touches of any Tottenham player, the highest number of defensive actions and also the most passes into the attacking 1/3 (both sides), interpret that how you like.

Please don't think that a goal and a few strong tackles meant that the 2nd half performance was any better than what we've seen. Our in play possession was very much the same as the 1st half, we just won a few more of the duals.

Also too easy for Villa to play in midfield