Plenty of positives for under-pressure Frank despite Sunderland draw

Thomas Frank believed there were positives to take from Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with Sunderland despite the result leaving them down in the bottom half of the Premier League.

Frank watched on as Brian Brobbey’s late stunner sealed a share of the spoils after Ben Davies had given Spurs the lead with a neat finish in the 30th minute of the match.

Both sides could have won it late on, but Trai Hume’s effort was tipped over the crossbar before Joao Palhinha flicked a header just wide of Robin Roefs’ left-hand post.

Indeed, Tottenham have now drawn six of their 20 Premier League matches under Frank this season (W7 L7), as many stalemates as Spurs endured across their final 53 league games under Ange Postecoglou (W18 L29).

Spurs are now 13th in the standings seven points adrift of Liverpool in fourth, though Frank insisted that his team’s display was a step in the right direction.

“There were a lot of positives in the performance,” Frank told BBC Sport. The first half was much more like we want to do.

“I liked our intensity with and without the ball, we created a lot of good situations, but we lacked the decisiveness to finish the game off.

“The second half was a little more back and forth, but we were slightly on top, and still got into those attacking situations where we needed to kill the game off.

“The positive is the intensity, the negative is we didn’t score a second goal.”

The points are shared in N17 pic.twitter.com/cnmyYK8p2T

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 4, 2026

It’s been a turbulent start to life at Spurs for Frank, with the former Brentford boss booed off after playing out a 0-0 draw with his former club on New Year’s Day.

It was a similar story at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with the full-time whistle greeted by further jeers from the home fans, though Frank was not fazed by that reception.

“First and foremost, throughout the game the fans were very good and backing us and that is all we are asking for,” Frank added.

“I am sure the fans will acknowledge the first half and they [the players] tried throughout the game, but sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”

For Sunderland, meanwhile, their dream start in the top flight continued as they extended their unbeaten run to five matches, though their last four results have been draws.

It’s the Black Cats’ longest run without defeat in the Premier League since a streak of six under Sam Allardyce, which occurred between April and May 2016.

For Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris, he said his side improved at “the simple things”, but conceded his side were second best during the first half.

“Tactically, we were OK [in the first half] but we didn’t win enough duels, we were sloppy on the ball, the flow of the game was not as expected,” Le Bris said.

“During the second half, at half-time we said just 1-0 down, it’s impossible to change the dynamic.

“It’s up to us because it’s about simple things and we had the ability to change those things in the second half.”