PARIS -- A Chanel-clad executive in the upmarket 16th arrondissement? A student grabbing coffee in the Latin Quarter? A labourer travelling in from the banlieues? Chances are they support Paris Saint-Germain. This city, though famous for its free spirits, is almost totally united in its love for a single football team. The jumpman owns them all.
As Wednesday's kickoff approached and the city hummed to the tune of what promised to be another crushing victory for the stylish boys in red and blue, you wondered just how envious Thomas Frank must have been of Luis Enrique and the life he has found in the City of Light.
The big question for Frank, three days out from perhaps the most personally damaging defeat of his time in English football, was whether to double down on his five-at-the-back system that has drawn the ire of a fracturing Spurs fanbase, or to try something new in an attempt to kickstart his misfiring team.
As the teamsheets were circulated shortly before kick-off, the answer was clear: Archie Gray back from injury and back in the starting XI for the first time since the Carabao Cup defeat at Newcastle. In too were Lucas Bergvall, Pape Matar Sarr and Randal Kolo Muani. Four at the back. Two up front.
- Tottenham's Frank hopes Kolo Muani's brace is just the start
- Kolo Muani finds redemption, Vitinha shows class
- Vitinha hat trick helps Paris Saint-Germain beat Tottenham
Did the Dane have one eye on Saturday's crucial home game against Fulham? Or was this the second phase of the "special operation" he came so close to pulling off in August's UEFA Super Cup defeat to Enrique's team?
In truth, what Frank had really done was swap picking all of his centre-backs for picking almost all of his central midfielders.
But as it turned out, Bergvall and Gray in particular succeeded in harrying PSG's heralded midfield trio of Vitinha, João Neves and Fabián Ruiz. They also possessed the guile that the Bentancur-João Palhinha axis has lacked since the early days of the season. Bergvall and Gray's combination down the left led to a Richarlison opener that caused plenty at the Parc des Princes to sit up and take notice.
"Very impressive," Frank said later. "Two young players. I said from the beginning, I believe a lot in Archie was there ready before Monaco and then unfortunately he picked up the calf injury, so we've been waiting for him to be ready again.
"Today he showed a lot and the way the two of them set up the first goal was also joyful to watch. But the mobility, technical ball handling, mentality, character -- I liked it."
By the end of the game, though, PSG's trio had taught their younger counterparts a lesson in just what it takes to be at the top dogs of European football. Vitinha's hat trick -- headlined by a first goal that was so good it looked almost bizarre -- saw Frank talk up his Ballon d'Or chances. "Wow. What a player," he said with typical earnestness.
It wasn't just in his troublesome midfield that Frank, whether by chance or design, may have stumbled upon a solution.
The on-loan Kolo Muani, discarded from the Parc des Princes two years after joining them in a €90 million ($104.3m) move from Eintracht Frankfurt, made sure to impact the match in the way the pre-game narrative had effectively obligated him to.
With a brace against his parent club, Kolo Muani's PSG reunion upstaged Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembélé's return from injury. The Bondy-born forward, who played in a mask after breaking his jaw in a collision with Harry Maguire before the international break, has now scored double the number of Champions League goals for Spurs as he ever did for PSG.
It's nice to think that after years of upheaval, Kolo Muani may have now found his home -- a striker famous for a World Cup final miss playing for a team synonymous with falling short? It could be the perfect match.
To rival fans, taking too many positives from a defeat in which the team conceded five goals is delusional, but Spurs supporters love a glorious failure more than any other. In serving up a display full of ambition, Wednesday night served as an olive branch of shorts between Frank's methodology and the fanbase's philosophy when it was needed most.
"After a bad performance [at the weekend], today I saw more identity of the team I want to create, we want to create," Frank said. "Much more character, personality, aggressiveness -- three words you need to have in any team, no matter how you want to do, how you want to play, whatever formation, whatever. Today we saw it and that I'm pleased with.
"Of course, I think it was a performance that was ... where we could get something out of the game, a draw or a win, so that's a little frustrating thing that we concede some goals.
"Of course, one with a little bit of margin from Vitinha, putting it into, not top corner but top, top corner and then of course goals three and four -- those are the ones we definitely need to avoid if we want to get something out of here. But something to build on."