Tottenham managed to put a halt to their Premier League struggles to record a 3-1 win over Brentford on Saturday.

Spurs responded after successive defeats against Newcastle and Arsenal to pick up all three points when the Bees came to N17 – but the north Londoners could well have seen their No.1 dismissed after Guglielmo Vicario handled the ball outside of his box.
Now, Thomas Frank has shared his thoughts on that bizarre moment from the Tottenham No.1…

What Thomas Frank said about Guglielmo Vicario incident

Surprisingly, the Dane seems quite calm about the odd decision – only describing it as a “small, little” moment when, in truth, we have seen goalkeepers sent off for such an act before.

In case you missed it, Vicario strangely juggled the ball outside of his box not once, but twice, which stopped Mikkel Damsgaard from taking possession and slotting into what would have been an empty net.

It could surely be described as the denial of a goalscoring opportunity, but in fairness, Frank opted to praise John Brooks for his officiating, rather than pile on the criticism.

The 50-year-old said: “It wasn’t impacting the game. It wasn’t a penalty, it wasn’t a red card, it was just a freekick outside the box which John (Brooks) should have seen. I think he refereed a very good game, that was just a small little thing. If you come here you need to get everything with us to maximise our chances in the game.”
It is rare to see an opposition manager respond like this, when – in truth – it easily could have been a red card.

Perhaps Frank simply doesn’t want to pin the blame on Brooks, instead wanting his side to step things up themselves after a poor display.

Tottenham No.1 needs to relax

Last week, Gary Neville tore into Vicario for looking panicked in the 1-0 defeat against Arsenal, and it must be said that the Italian has seemed rather erratic so far this season.

The 27-year-old does not appear to ooze much confidence at the moment, which is undoubtedly filtering into his teammates in defence, causing Spurs to look far from solid as a unit at the moment.

Of course, Tottenham have also been quite dysfunctional in attack at times, although the foundations are created at the back, and Spurs will only improve as a team once Vicario calms down in between the sticks.

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National media reacts to James Maddison display in Tottenham win v Brentford

Spurs returned to winning ways in the Premier League after beating Brentford 3-1 on Saturday at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.

Ange Postecoglou’s side lost 1-0 against Arsenal in the north London derby last week. They made a comeback with a 2-1 win over Coventry City in midweek in the Carabao Cup and followed it up with a fantastic win in the league.

Despite conceding an early goal, Spurs responded strongly, with Dominic Solanke netting his first goal for the club since his big-money move this summer. Brennan Johnson added another to make it 2-1 at the break.

The visitors applied great pressure and came to closing on a few occasions, but Maddison killed off the competition with a terrific finish from close range.

The Mail on Sunday (page 96) was heavily impressed with Maddison, and they hailed him as “splendid”. The newspaper gave him an 8/10 rating for his wonderful overall performance.

James Maddison has been superb for Tottenham this season
Danny Murphy rightly pointed out on Match of the Day that Maddison has been brilliant for Spurs this season. The only reason why his performances have not been discussed is because Spurs collectively were below par.

The England midfielder was involved in so many great chances throughout the game. He was absolutely delighted after the goal was scored and he took his shift off, picking up a yellow card in the process.

A total of 195 days have passed since he last scored. In between, he suffered the blow of omission from the England squad for the Euros. He was relieved in the end, and so was Postecoglou.

Despite the win, the Tottenham boss will be disappointed with the number of chances his side has wasted during the game. However, Maddison scored in the 85th minute with a delicate chip after Son Heung-Min found him in the box.

The scoreline could have been easily different but they got the job done in the end.