Thomas Frank: I won’t look at the table until April

Tottenham could go top of the Premier League with victory at Brighton on Saturday but Thomas Frank insists he will not pay much attention to the table until April.

Spurs have made an excellent start under the Danish coach with three wins from four in the Premier League and they triumphed 1-0 in their Champions League opener at home to Villarreal on Tuesday night.

Third-placed Tottenham could hit the summit with victory on the south coast if Liverpool lose in the Merseyside derby to Everton in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off.

But asked when he will look at the table, Frank smiled: “April? Let’s put it that way.

“I think I looked at the table a couple of times after one of the last games and I thought, ‘ooh, is that team that high or that low?’ because I’m not looking at it.

“I’m trying really to focus on our ourselves and our performances and what we can do.

“It is so easy to get dragged into something you can’t control. I think for the fans, they should dream, they should hope and all that. That is what football is all about.

“I also dream and hope but I’m a little bit closer to the action, so I need to stay level-headed and focus on next training because it needs to be perfect like today.

“It was very good training, with the coaches, with the staff, top players. Everything ran very well and then I need to do what I can to make sure we win more.”

He added: “The positive thing is he is back on the grass and has been for three or four days. He is progressing forward slowly, but forward.

“It is too early for tomorrow and Doncaster (September 24) but the positive thing is that he is on the grass and progressing forward.”

Richarlison should start again, but Spurs boss Frank is expected to make a handful of changes with Joao Palhinha set to be recalled.

Brennan Johnson will hope for minutes at Brighton. Johnson is joint-leading goalscorer with two goals.

Tottenham have scored 10 in all competitions with four from set-pieces, but Frank thinks they can get better under specialist coach Andreas Georgson.

“Andreas, I’ve known him since he was at Brentford when I actually appointed him,” Frank explained.

“The big responsibility for Andreas is obviously set pieces, but also culture.

“He’s got a different approach, which I think is important in a group, to ask different questions, sometimes extremely annoying and put me a little bit on the spot but that’s good. We need that.

“I need that, but obviously on the set pieces you can see I think we have a very good foundation to stand on.

“We can get better, but defensively we look strong, offensively we look strong, so a big credit to him, but also a massive credit to Sean our analyst but also to the players that really bought into it.”