Tottenham Hotspur were handed their most humiliating result in a season filled with disappointing defeats. As if their lethargic 1-0 loss to rivals Chelsea a few weeks ago wasn't already a clear warning shot across the bow of embattled manager Thomas Frank, Spurs latest 4-1 defeat to North London Derby rivals Arsenal in their biggest game of the season so far has sent everyone into a tailspin.
And Frank has a lot of mistakes to answer for in the aftermath of a blowout loss that was never in question. To begin the match, Frank snubbed the player with the most attention on him coming into the derby, discarding top summer signing Xavi Simons in favor of young, unproven Wilson Odobert in the playmaker position.
Odobert was predictably poor and overmatched against a world class Arsenal midfield and defense. The young Frenchman is a quality talent who is coming up in his own right and had a few nice games recently, but those pleasantries were grossly overstated by a few overzealous Spurs supporters, wanting to swing the pendulum away from the gross criticism he had received earlier in the season.
Wilson Odobert isn't ready yet
But Odobert proved that he is too raw for a game of this magnitude. Simons did come off the bench in the second half to join the festivities, and while he was admittedly not effective again either, he was still a bit better than Odobert and did improve the team.
Simons is too good to be riding the pine or playing suboptimal roles. The fact that Tottenham made him their most expensive signing after serious interest from Chelsea and other top clubs, only for Frank to cluelessly squander him, is a huge indictment of the manager that has to be a bigger talking point after the Arsenal loss.
Tottenham are not putting Simons in a position to succeed, and benching him for a game of this magnitude was hardly ever going to be a wise decision. A few Frank apologists tried to play up the Odobert form angle coming into the game after hearing of his controversial decision, and that backfired in unsurprising faction.
There was simply no justification from any reasonable person for Simons sitting this game out, and Frank has continually snubbed his biggest signing this season. It could ultimately be his undoing, too, as more Spurs fans slowly turn against a manager who does not look ready for the big time himself.