Tottenham’s three-match winning run is over. Noah Okafor came off the Leeds bench and scored with his third touch 11 minutes from time, and Leeds 1-0 Tottenham is the score Roberto De Zerbi takes into the international break.
It was a game Spurs could have controlled. They had the better chances before half-time, but a long VAR check on Jayden Bogle’s challenge on Mathys Tel changed the mood, Tel went off injured soon after, and Daniel Farke’s side owned the second half at Elland Road.
The result gives Leeds their first win since 14 September. For Tottenham, it is only their second league defeat of the season after Brentford, and the first since September.
How did Leeds beat Tottenham?
The winner came in the 79th minute, barely two minutes after Farke sent on Harry Wilson and Okafor for Ao Tanaka and Lukas Nmecha. Okafor ran onto a flick inside the box, took one touch to set himself and drove it into the corner past Antonin Kinsky.
It was coming. Leeds had pushed Spurs back for most of the second half, and the goal rewarded the side that won more of the duels.
Spurs still had one big moment to save a point. Deep into the four added minutes, Jan Paul van Hecke met a free-kick and headed it towards the corner, but James Trafford threw himself to his left and palmed it round the post.
A first half Spurs should have used
Leeds started on the front foot and felt they should have had a penalty early on, when the ball appeared to hit the outstretched arm of Mateus Fernandes. Neither the referee John Brooks nor the VAR, Tony Harrington, stepped in.
After that, Spurs grew into it. Just after the 20-minute mark, Trafford had to get down to an Omar Marmoush shot that deflected off Tarik Muharemović and spun towards the bottom corner, and he also kept out a testing drive from Mohammed Kudus. Late in the half, a low Kudus cross flashed across the face of goal with nobody able to touch it in.
De Zerbi said afterwards that his side created two or three clear chances before the break. On another day, one of them goes in.
The Bogle and Tel flashpoint
The moment that will be talked about came late in the first half. Bogle, trying to plant his foot as he went for the ball, caught Tel on the back of the ankle with his studs. Brooks gave the foul but no card, and after a review of around four minutes in the VAR hub, Bogle stayed on without even a booking.
Harrington’s explanation was that there was a lack of speed in the challenge and that Bogle was stepping into it, so it was reckless rather than serious foul play. A reckless challenge is a yellow card, but the VAR cannot step in to recommend a booking. Tel tried to carry on, but he was replaced by Dominic Solanke in the 43rd minute. Tottenham are understood to be writing to Pro Ref, the referees’ body, to ask why it was not a red, a week after Jean-Philippe Mateta was sent off for a challenge on Micky van de Ven, as we covered when Crystal Palace appealed the red card that opened up Tottenham’s win.
Second half: Leeds took over
Farke sent on Melvin Bard for Gabriel Gudmundsson at the break, and Leeds came out flying down the left. Van de Ven turned one cross over his own bar, Dominic Calvert-Lewin had a header cleared off the line from the corner, and Nico Elvedi couldn’t turn in the rebound.
Calvert-Lewin then cut inside two defenders to set up Tanaka, who couldn’t keep his shot down, and Nmecha was blocked after twisting his way into the box. Spurs’ only real reply was a Conor Gallagher drive that went narrowly wide.
Kinsky kept it level for as long as he could. Sean Longstaff, on his 200th Premier League appearance, brought down a cross brilliantly and hit it towards goal, and Kinsky got his fingertips to it for the save of the match.
De Zerbi’s changes didn’t turn it
De Zerbi made a triple change in the 65th minute: Rodrigo Bentancur for Fernandes, Dejan Kulusevski for Marmoush and Gallagher for Pedro Porro, who had been booked early in the second half. Luca Williams-Barnett came on for Kudus in the 83rd minute, while James Maddison stayed on the bench. None of it brought back the control Spurs had before the break.
Line-ups, goal and bookings
Leeds: Trafford, Bogle (Rodon 92), Gudmundsson (Bard 46), Ampadu, Muharemović, Longstaff (Gruev 92), Calvert-Lewin, Nmecha (Okafor 77), Tanaka (Wilson 77), Justin, Elvedi.
Tottenham: Kinsky, Robertson, Van Hecke, Tel (Solanke 43), Gray, Tonali, Fernandes (Bentancur 65), Kudus (Williams-Barnett 83), Marmoush (Kulusevski 65), Porro (Gallagher 65), Van de Ven.
Goal: Okafor 79. Booked: Longstaff, Okafor (Leeds), Van de Ven, Porro (Spurs). Referee: John Brooks. Attendance: 36,921.
Before kick-off, Elland Road held a silence for Remembrance, and in the 68th minute the crowd stood to remember Leeds season ticket holder Colin Westby, who died after a medical emergency before the Manchester United game.
Leeds 1-0 Tottenham: what it means for Spurs
We don’t think this undoes what De Zerbi has built over the last month. The first half looked like the team that won at Stamford Bridge, and the XI was close to the one we expected in our Tottenham predicted lineup vs Leeds United.
But the second half was a warning. Against a side that won the duels and kept coming, Spurs had no answer, and the bench didn’t give them one. The bigger worry now is Tel. De Zerbi called it a bad injury after the game and said the medical check would tell them more, so the break may at least buy him time.
