Thomas Frank makes "extremely stupid" Arsenal cup claim as Cristian Romero hits out at 'lying' Spurs chiefs

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank emphatically denied that he made an "extremely stupid" decision by drinking from an Arsenal cup in Wednesday's 3-2 Premier League loss to Bournemouth.

The already under-fire Dane faced more calls to go after Spurs suffered their eighth defeat of the Premier League season at the Vitality Stadium, where Manchester City-bound Antoine Semenyo struck a sensational injury-time winner.

The Europa League winners have been left languishing in 14th place in the Premier League table with just 27 points on the board, 13 clear of the relegation zone but a whopping 21 worse off than leaders Arsenal.

Many Tottenham fans have already turned on Frank, who infuriated disgruntled fans further when he was spotted smiling and drinking from a coffee cup with an Arsenal logo at the Vitality.

Once the image was proven to be real and not AI-generated, Frank was asked about the incident in his press conference, to which he delivered a vexed response at a "sad" question.

Tottenham boss Thomas Frank responds to "sad" Arsenal cup question

Thomas Frank... what's that in your hands? ? pic.twitter.com/bySo5ovsUI
— B/R Football (@brfootball) January 7, 2026

"I definitely didn’t notice it," Frank said. "I think it’s fair to say we’re not winning every single football match so it would be absolutely, completely stupid of me to take a cup with Arsenal’s [logo].

"They have been in the changing room the game before us. It’s normal to take a cup, give me an espresso, I do that before every game, so I think actually it’s a little bit sad in football that I need to be asked a question about that.

“We’re definitely going in the wrong direction if we need to be worry about me having a cup with a logo of another club. Of course I would never do that. That’s extremely stupid."

Tempers boiled over between fans and players at full time, when Micky van de Ven and Joao Palhinha - who had drawn Spurs level with a sensational bicycle kick - were seen in deep conversation with apoplectic Tottenham supporters.

Van de Ven's centre-back partner Cristian Romero also took to social media to vent his frustrations, hitting out at "lies" from "other people" in an apparent dig towards the Tottenham hierarchy.

The Argentine has since edited the post, but the overriding message remains the same, as he wrote: "At times like this, it should be other people coming out to speak, but they don’t — as has been happening for several years now. They only show up when things are going well."

Richarlison and Pedro Porro left affirming comments on Romero's post, with the former replying with a clapping hands emoji and Porro writing: "Amen. Keep going brother. We have a lot of battles left."

Thomas Frank cup incident adds fuel to Tottenham sack fire

Frank's Arsenal cup mistake may have been just that - a mistake - but such a high-profile blunder in the current Tottenham climate gives the #FrankOut brigade even more ammunition.

The Dane would not have knowingly been seen with any item bearing the logo of Tottenham's biggest rivals, but some may believe that his "didn't notice" claim is slightly far-fetched.

Frank is expected to remain in charge of the Lilywhites for now, but the calls for him to go will grow louder with every passing negative result, and the powers-that-be that Romero called out may have to take action soon enough.