Thomas Frank says the referee actually missed a 'small, little thing' during Tottenham 3-1 Brentford

Today at 04:15 AM

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.