Arsenal 4-1 Spurs | Thomas Frank's verdict

Thomas Frank said he ‘100% feels the pain’ after our 4-1 loss in the north London derby at the Emirates on Sunday.

Switching tactics from four to three/five at the back, with Kevin Danso joining Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, it was actually a quiet start to proceedings in N5 – Guglielmo Vicario only forced into one save to deny Declan Rice – but that all changed on 36 minutes when Leandro Trossard’s shot deflected off van de Ven and home.

Eberechi Eze then hit us with a quick one-two on his way to a hat-trick with his first for 2-0 on 41 minutes and second for 3-0 crucially a minute into the second half after Thomas had made tactical changes at half-time.

Richarlison pulled a goal back on 55 minutes with a fine lob over David Raya from 40 yards after Joao Palhinha won possession, but any hopes of a comeback were dashed by Eze’s third for 4-0 on 76 minutes.

Speaking to us afterwards, Thomas reflected: “It’s tough, a painful day in every aspect. I 100% feel the pain. I understand all the fans feel the pain and especially because the performance was not good, which is disappointing.

“It was not what I expected. I was actually extremely confident going into this game that we would be competitive. I knew it would be tough in every aspect. I didn't say we would go here and just completely dominate, but I knew we could be competitive, which we weren't on the day, unfortunately. I can only apologise for that. It's my responsibility in every aspect.

“Especially first half, we wanted to go more after them, but we never really managed to do that, to get close enough, to put on the high pressure and when they went long, to win the second ball and play from there, it was too few occasions.”

Thomas agreed that the goals – especially the goals either side of half-time – knocked us for six. “They had the ball a lot in the beginning of the game, but they didn't create a lot,” he said. “Then, the first goal came and after that, if you can avoid the second one and get to half-time, because we know in games that there can be very tough spells, but if you get through them and then you get back in the game a little bit of momentum, but we didn't manage to do that.”

As always, there is little time to reflect – football moves on quickly – in our case, a trip to holders PSG in the UEFA Champions League at Parc des Princes on Wednesday evening (8pm UK). “Yes, but as I say, 24 hours rule - we need to be disappointed, painful, suffer, and then we need to move forward again,” added Thomas. “That's the only way, I think, that is stand up again, go forward. You have a big hit. You need to show resilience and go again.”