At kick-off, they found themselves in 15th place in the table on 28 points, alongside the likes of Crystal Palace, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest.
More injuries for Tottenham to contend with
Though Spurs were eight points clear of relegation before their test against Man City, it's been the manner of their performances and lack of zip that's clearly irked the faithful supporters who pay their hard-earned money every week to be entertained at the very least.
Certainly, the pressure has been on Frank for a while. However, he, too, just like his predecessor, Ange Postecoglou, could contend that injuries to key players have hampered his ability to get his side up the table.
Indeed, all of Micky van de Ven, James Maddison, Rodrigo Bentancur, Richarlison, Mohammed Kudus, Ben Davies, Pedro Porro and Dejan Kulusevski were unable to take part in Sunday's game. All players who would arguably make the starting XI if available for selection.
Five changes from Spurs' match against Burnley, therefore, weren't a surprise. Whilst Erling Haaland and Rayan Ait-Nouri replaced Omar Marmoush and Tijjani Reijnders, Pep Guardiola made two changes to his side.
Near silence in N17
Just two league wins at home in 2025/26, three draws, and six losses indicated the size of the task awaiting the hosts against a City side who had only recently broken a four-match winless run in the league themselves (2-0 vs Wolves).
With Arsenal having comprehensively beaten Leeds on Saturday, Pep Guardiola's side had to earn the three points in North London if they didn't want to end the weekend seven points behind the Gunners.
Oddly enough, the Lilywhites have a better record against the Cityzens at the Etihad Stadium, where they won 2-0 earlier in the season thanks to goals from Brennan Johnson and Joao Palhinha.
On his 100th Premier League appearance, City's Matheus Nunes had an extra reason to ensure that another defeat wasn't forthcoming on Sunday, and an eerie atmosphere in the stadium greeted him and the players - continuing for much of the first half - meaning that you could almost hear the instructions from both benches clearly.
All too easy for City
An initial burst from the North Londoners, when Dominic Solanke and Conor Gallagher took up some decent attacking positions, was soon curtailed, and Spurs were made to pay after a poor pass from Yves Bissouma ended with Rayan Cherki firing City ahead with their second shot on target.
Only West Ham and Burnley (seven each) had conceded more than Spurs' six in the opening 15 minutes of matches, and Tottenham also failed to win any of their last 25 games when conceding first.
It was all too easy for the visitors who were leading the hosts a merry dance during the opening 20 minutes - never better evidenced than when Cherki slalomed past a number of pathetic challenges from Tottenham's back line.
City's more expansive use of the ball kept the Lilywhites at bay, and with half an hour played, Spurs had managed just 46 accurate passes in the City half. They had, predictably, made more tackles at that point (seven to City's five), but had won just two, compared to City's three.
Semenyo with the freedom of the stadium....
There was a lot of chasing shadows, as often happens against a Guardiola side enjoying a collective 77% pass completion.
The issue, perhaps, was that Tottenham just couldn't get their full-backs going and up the pitch often enough. Between Destiny Udogie and Archie Gray, they'd had just one touch in the opposition box.
As half-time approached, Rodri had won all eight of his duels and had recovered possession four times - both match-high figures at that point.
In a game where the hosts needed to get at their opponents, the vast majority of their passing was either sideways or backwards, and that was evidenced by Bissouma's seven balls back to Cristian Romero, or Xavi Simons' four sideways passes to Udogie.
There was simply no urgency to their play, and two minutes before the break, a shockingly open Spurs back line allowed Antoine Semenyo to walk into acres of space centrally and fire home one of the easiest finishes of his career.
Just two shots and an xG of 0.1 just about summed up what Tottenham offered in a one-sided 45 minutes.
The crescendo of boos that accompanied the teams as they went off was enough of an indicator as to how the locals felt about such a lack of fighting spirit from their side.
'Scorpion' Solanke to the rescue
And yet, within seven minutes of the second half starting, Solanke had bundled into Marc Guehi and got his toe to the ball to flick it over the oncoming Gianluigi Donnarumma.
A switch up in effort could quickly be seen, with Xavi Simons' industry particularly noticeable. 13 one-on-ones attempted before the hour mark was more than any player on the pitch, including Rodri (12), though where the hosts had to be disciplined was in their desire to get forward to level the game.
Often far too open, it allowed Rodri to open up the pitch for his colleagues. 85 accurate passes from 94 attempted by the hour mark was a sensational 90.4% return.
He, too, would drive forward when the opportunity presented itself, though as the decibel levels rose, so did Spurs' chances of grabbing the equaliser.
Joao Palhinha's six tackles saw him leading by example, whilst Conor Gallagher's three interceptions gave Tottenham a more robust outlook.
It was the former Atletico Madrid man's industry in winning another challenge against Nico O'Reilly and Nico Gonzalez that set up Spurs' second, as he crossed for Solanke to caress the ball home with a delicious 'scorpion' finish.
In so doing, Solanke had become the first Spurs player to score two or more goals in a home Premier League game against Man City since Niko Kranjcar in 2009.
Survival of the fittest
The pendulum had certainly swung, and at this point the second half, Tottenham had had three shots on target to City's none, and had edged ahead with collective possession as those in the stadium belatedly found their voices.
Only Donnarumma's outstretched palm kept out a goal-bound Simons effort, the Dutchman's five shots being his most in a Premier League game.
The final 10 minutes became a real slugfest. A survival of the fittest and a question of who wanted it most.
Spurs' five shots on target in the second half were the most since their opening game of the 25/26 season, but Solanke going off in the last minute of normal time may well have tempered his club's delight at earning a point that was more than unlikely at the break.
Despite City having 66% collective possession in the final 15 minutes of the game, they'd failed to have a shot on target in three consecutive Premier League second halves for the first time since December 2007.
