Every word Thomas Frank said on how Archie Gray must improve, Bergvall injury and Fabio Paratici

Here's every single word the Tottenham Hotspur head coach said to the media following the derby win at Crystal Palace on Sunday

Thomas Frank had a smile to end 2025 in his press conference after Tottenham's 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday.

After Richarlison put the ball in the net just after 15 minutes from Pedro Porro's curling low ball only for VAR to spot that Lucas Bergvall was offside in the build-up, all the pressure then came from the hosts in the first half with eight shots albeit without troubling Guglielmo Vicario.

Then Archie Gray scored his first senior goal against the run of play when a deep corner from Porro was headed back by Randal Kolo Muani and Richarlison flicked it on for the teenager to nod into the net just before the break.

Spurs improved in the second half and Richarlison again believed he had scored with 15 minutes left after he slid in Mohammed Kudus' low cross but the Brazilian was marginally offside after a VAR check.

Substitute Wilson Odobert struck an effort against the left-hand post in the final 10 minutes and Rodrigo Bentancur had a shot saved as Spurs ended 2025 with a hard-fought victory.

Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those asking the questions of Frank after the win. Here's the full transcript from the press conference at Selhurst Park.

Did you deserve to win today?

I think it was an even game. In many ways. I think we had three key actions in the game where it's like this [does hand signal to show small margin] between being onside, two of them, and being inside of the post, and a goal. So I think if you're that close three times to scoring a goal, it's not bad, and then we would have scored four. That's a way to look at it.

I really liked the desire, details, mentality in the team, and the character and resilience of the team is something I spoke about a lot. That is so important that we have that resilience in the team. Because in a long PL season, you need to go to a very difficult away ground here, and fight and show character. Get a clean sheet, win 1-0, that was a massive win in many ways.

Was it a top performance? No. Are there things we can improve? Yes. But to go here, with the season having been a little bit up and down, I think it's a huge mentality effort from the players. And I think we played extremely disciplined throughout the game. For example, one of Palace's main strengths is transitions, and we really closed them down, something we worked very, very hard on, big discipline in the team and we need to do that.

How pleased are you for Archie Gray to score his first senior goal to top off recent performances?

Definitely. I think Archie is growing. He showed why he has a very good potential in many ways. I think it's another fine performance overall today. Talking about resilience, he made a mistake in the Nottingham game, played another good game against Liverpool, growing as a young man. He was alert. I loved that goal, because he was alert, he was seeing where the ball will land and he was ready on it.

Does Archie give you a glimpse into the future of this team?

Yes I think so. I think he shows a lot of quality, he covers ground so well, he's excellent in the pressing game, the defensive transition, brilliant at closing down. And then I think he's good on the ball, but there are parts of the game where we are not top in that area, and didn't show enough of his qualities there.

Is Lucas Bergvall ok?

I hope so, of course we'll assess him tomorrow.

You talked about it being, not the greatest performance, but a really important one. Have people got to accept that a team who's struggling is going to have to play like that away from home sometimes?

I think every game is different. As far as I know, the Newcastle game was even. The Brentford home game, we were way on top. Liverpool even until we got the red card. There's been many other games.

I just think for any team, it's also the expectation, where are we right now? I think that resilience and mentality to show that and win 1-0 is hugely important. On a day where maybe it's not free-floating and everything, it's fair to say we lack a few offensive players, including Xavi today and our captain, and then come to Crystal Palace. I, by the way, saw the Crystal Palace-Liverpool game.

Liverpool should have been down 2-0 or 3-0 at half-time. It's a difficult place to go and go here to win the way we did. Very impressive.

You guys have got the best away record in the Premier League so far this season. What do you put that down to and do you feel like you have a template or a method for winning these away games?

I think the players really understood what type of game we were facing today. I think the discipline in what I say, the rest defending, not giving stupid counter-attacks away, trying to come here and just completely dominating when we are, where we are, where we are not at the top of where we want to be in terms of performance-wise, which we were working on.

And then put the effort and the character and defending side of the game into it. That gave us a 1-0 win today. There have been other very good away wins where we have been more dominant.

But to do that, I think it's a huge quality. Then when we get the home form even better, it will be very good.

This keeps you within touching distance of the top five. Given that the first half of the season has been a bit of a transitional one, does it feel like Champions League qualification is still an achievable goal this season?

I think, how can you say it, the consistency in these performances, before the game I said we had four out of five good performances, including the Liverpool one in many ways.

This is another one in terms of consistently working hard. Not everything was perfect, but it's a good step in the right direction. That's what we need to keep working on. Then get a little bit more in form of the offensive players, and then step by step.

We saw Fabio Paratici up alongside Vinai Venkatesham in the stands today, amid speculation of his future. Is that a good sign?

I didn't know that Vinai and Fabio were here today, but I expected them to be. As I said the whole time, there's a lot of rumours with a lot of things. Players, staff members, directors, whatever it is, I don't comment on them.

Speaking of transfers, there's been a lot of speculation about Brennan Johnson and Crystal Palace, are you keen to keep him in January?

Yeah, I think Brennan is very important for us. Maybe he didn't get many minutes, but unfortunately we can only play 11 players. We spoke about it before with Mo, he's coming in and put his stamp on that right winger position. Then the left, we tried different solutions. He's still started quite a few games. I think Brennan is an important player for us.

The team has had moments like the Brentford win or the Copenhagen win and then taken a step backwards. Do you need to use this as a springboard for more consistent results?

I think the most important thing is we get consistent performances. If we get that, then you never know because I start the press conference today talking about this (fine margin) and if we get this, we score three more goals so that can go one way or another. If we get consistent performances where we defend like we did today, then show more calmness and coolness on the ball, which we didn’t and also second half you can see we are not a free-flowing confidence team, but we won.

You scored your ninth set-piece goal, the fifth most in the Premier League, how important is it to lean on that quality?

Every team needs to find an edge and set-pieces is one area that is hugely important. We saw the Chelsea v Villa game yesterday and two out of three goals set-pieces, so it is hugely important we keep working on that and very happy the way the players have really brought into it.

Arne Slot said last season a manager normally gets possession principles in, then defensive and then set-pieces last. Have you approached it the other way round?

I think that set-piece was a low-hanging fruit, which we have improved compared to last season but it needs to be all three areas. I can’t see why we can’t improve three areas at same time. Then some time you can say, ‘set-pieces have improved a lot,’ or ‘offensively has improved a lot,’ or ‘defence has improved,’ depending on where you are, but all three areas are very important.