Spurs 1 – 2 Aston Villa

Tottenham were booed as pressure mounted on Thomas Frank after losing 2-1 to Aston Villa in the FA Cup third round.

The situation at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has turned sour again, three days after Bournemouth’s last-minute win soured the atmosphere between away fans and Tottenham players.

Emi Buendia’s powerful strike put Villa ahead and Frank and his team were booed at half-time after Morgan Rodgers took advantage of another lackluster, lackluster play from Spurs to double their lead.

With obvious dissatisfaction and growing signs of a disconnect with Spurs supporters, traveling fans bombarded Frank with chants such as “You’re fired this morning” and “Frank is an Arsenal fan”, referring to the Arsenal Cup he held in the build-up to midweek defeat.

However, despite the home crowd’s silence and apathy creeping in, Spurs hit back after the break with a fine goal from Wilson Odbert that ended up shifting the momentum in their favor.

Booth quickly turned to encouragement as the rejuvenated Spurs side pressed for an equalizer.

Odbert, Matthijs Tell and Xavi Simons all came close and called for the introduction of Marco Bizzotto to maintain Villa’s slim lead, but a dismal performance to start the game ultimately meant there was too much work to do against a resilient Villa.

Spurs suffered their 10th loss of the season under Frank and were eliminated from the cup, but the frustration after that loss will continue to boil over at full-time and there will be boos.

Joao Parinha and Micky van de Ven, the same duo who got involved with away fans at Bournemouth, were at the center of another brawl as the former reacted to Ollie Watkins’ celebration after the final whistle.

Parinha pushed Villa forward as he approached a Villa supporter, before Rodgers and Van de Ven intervened to calm the situation. The rest of the players from both teams soon followed, while Frank watched in disbelief from a safe distance.

After the match, Frank criticized Watkins for provoking Parinha with his congratulations. “We lost a close game, the season hasn’t been perfect and Ollie is very provocative,” he said in the post-match press conference.

“He can walk around easily. Anyone with a competitive nature, that can trigger things.”

Villa’s attention could turn to Monday night’s fourth-round tie, but Frank will need to pick up the pieces from yet another defeat to prepare his side for the London derby against West Ham on January 17. This game is likely to be classed as a must-win for the Spurs manager.

Chaos full time! Parinha once again embroiled in post-match drama

Frank responds to ‘disappointed’ boos

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank:

“It’s disappointing, we’re all injured and there’s nothing we want more than to get to the next round.

“We were playing at home and had some good chances, but unfortunately we couldn’t get through. We gave our all.

“Everyone knows that the only way to make everyone happy is to perform consistently and win games.

“You could see how the players and fans encouraged each other. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to achieve the great comebacks that sometimes create momentum.”

“We need to perform so they can feed off the energy, but we need them in tough times. They’re there and supporting us.”

Emery: We deserved to beat Spurs

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery:

“Of course, we played in our system for 90 minutes and we expected it to be a difficult game.

“It happened more or less as we planned: we stopped the opponent, we dominated the ball, we kept possession and we scored two goals.

“After the first half, we expected them to push more and show more character. We had to be ready to bounce back. We conceded one goal and had some chances, but Marco Bizzotto had to save.

“We’ll bounce back like we did in the first half. After 90 minutes, I think we deserved this win considering our momentum and their momentum.”