Thomas Frank has dismissed the subject of former summer target Eberechi Eze ahead of Tottenham’s trip to rivals Arsenal.
Spurs were close to securing a major statement signing in August when they made a move for England playmaker Eze, but the transfer was hijacked at the last minute by north London rivals Arsenal.
Tottenham have instead focused on Xavi Simons and although Eze has just two goals and three assists in 17 appearances for Arsenal, all eyes will be on the former Crystal Palace talisman ahead of Sunday’s clash at the Emirates Stadium.
Frank joked: “Who is Eze? Very good player. He plays for Arsenal. A team we want to beat on Sunday.”
Pressed further on Eze, Frank reverted to his standard answer about transfer targets, but insisted he was happy with his squad.
“I really like talking about the players that are here. The only other two I’ll talk about are [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo,” Frank smiles.
Frank, for his part, has warned his players to prepare for a “crazy” derby and plans to get the upper hand on the “two traitors” of the opposing team.
Spurs visit their rivals on Sunday seeking a second Premier League win at the Emirates since it opened 19 years ago.
Tottenham may boast a poor recent record in the north London derby, but they nevertheless often offer drama and excitement in equal measure.
Frank earned a point at Arsenal last season with Brentford and his first ever Premier League game of 2021 ended in a memorable 2-0 triumph, but two members of his starting line-up that night have since been signed by Mikel Arteta in David Raya and Christian Nørgaard.
Recalling this and the frenetic nature of this encounter, Frank smiled and joked: “Two of them are now traitors and have been transferred to the wrong club!
“What’s interesting is that Mikel and I would probably like a little more control, but it will probably be a madhouse and very, very enjoyable to watch for outsiders or fans.
“I’m expecting a tough match of course, but a match that can go anywhere and anything can happen in matches like this. Everything also balances out a little more because it’s so competitive and the atmosphere in the stadium.
“Definitely embrace controlled chaos or the chaos we like to create if that makes sense, because chaos can be good too. It can be too disruptive, or too fixed and too stop-start, so we need a little chaos.
“And chaos can be transitions, high pressures and decisive second phases and all of those are of course areas that we would like to exploit if we can.
“We will never get 0-0. It might end 0-0 but we will always try to win. Always, always, always.”
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Set pieces should be decisive with Arsenal leading the way with 12 goals from corners and free kicks in the division this season.
Tottenham have also been productive with five in the Premier League after Frank hired Andreas Georgson as set-piece coach in the summer.
Georgson worked with Frank at Brentford and Arsenal guru Nicolas Jover also started under the Danish manager in west London.
“Both are very curious, they both want to constantly learn and develop by studying the set-piece game, so they have the same mindset in many ways,” Frank explained.
“So in that sense they are quite similar. One is Swedish, the other French, so a bit of a different character!
“Mikel and I, with our coaches, will fight: how can we gain the upper hand? And it will be the same with Nicolas and Andreas.
“I’m pretty sure the things I did at Brentford inspired a lot of clubs to focus more on set pieces and it’s quite interesting that this year I’m moving from Brentford to Tottenham, the increased focus on set pieces for all teams, especially long throws, is crazy.
“It seems like everyone is very, very focused on them, which is what we should be. They are a third of our goals. So why not be very good in this phase, and very good under high pressure. We have to be good in many phases.”
