Tottenham Hotspur dismissed Thomas Frank on Wednesday morning after a run of results that left the club precariously placed in the table. The club\u2019s statement was terse: \u201cResults and performances have led the board to conclude that a change at this point in the season is necessary,\u201d and followed a 2\u20131 defeat to Newcastle United that left Spurs 16th, five points clear of the relegation zone.<\/p>\n
The immediate concern is obvious: fixtures tighten, injuries persist and no manager is yet in the dugout. The new-look executive board in the absence of Daniel Levy will have more than a week to find a successor\u2014either a stop-gap before a permanent summer appointment or a longer-term choice\u2014before next Sunday\u2019s north London derby.<\/p>\n
Despite the turmoil, Opta’s supercomputer assigns Tottenham only a 3.95% chance of relegation. Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley are described as effectively consigned to demotion, while West Ham United are rated the likeliest candidates at 74.57% even after an encouraging recent run. Nottingham Forest are given a 15.15% likelihood of dropping, and Leeds United have a 4.82% chance.<\/p>\n
The model expects Spurs to finish the season where they sit now, in 16th. That would be marginally better than the Premier League era low of 17th under Ange Postecoglou last term, a campaign that was, at least, balanced by a Europa League trophy. Frank\u2019s side also managed fourth place across the initial league phase of this season\u2019s Champions League, a statistic that offers little consolation as domestic results decline.<\/p>\n
Frank has attracted unusual attention off the pitch; he was, according to a report, accused of an unhealthy \u201cobsession\u201d with the Gunners. He will surely watch the derby with interest, and he will remember Eberechi Eze becoming the first player to score a Premier League hat-trick in the fixture in November, a player Tottenham almost signed last summer who has not scored since.<\/p>\n
Upcoming fixtures:
\nSunday, Feb. 22 \u2014 Arsenal (H)
\nSunday, March 1 \u2014 Fulham (A)
\nThursday, March 5 \u2014 Crystal Palace (H)
\nSunday, March 15 \u2014 Liverpool (A)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opta’s model gives Tottenham a 3.95% relegation chance after Thomas Frank’s exit and fixtures loom. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,187],"tags":[1162,1458,1087],"class_list":["post-6806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epl","category-tottenham-hotspur","tag-analytics","tag-championship","tag-coaching-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}