Tottenham have now gone 39 Premier League games without a win after conceding the first goal, and the 1-0 defeat at Leeds made it the longest run of its kind in the club’s Premier League history.
Noah Okafor’s 79th-minute winner at Elland Road ended a run of three straight league wins for Tottenham. Spurs had 11 minutes plus stoppage time to find a reply. They never looked like getting one.
That is the pattern the numbers keep pointing to. When this side goes behind, it doesn’t come back, and on Saturday the reasons were easy to see.
What is Tottenham’s record when they concede first?
It reads nine draws and 30 defeats from the last 39 league games in which the opponent scored first. Not a single win. Opta confirmed after the final whistle that no run like it has ever been put together by Spurs in the Premier League.
39 – Tottenham Hotspur have failed to win any of their last 39 games in the Premier League in which they've conceded the opening goal (D9 L30); their longest ever run in the competition.
– OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 7, 2026
Setback. pic.twitter.com/0FfwlLIXO1
A run that long can’t all be pinned on Roberto De Zerbi, who only arrived in March. But it is now his problem to fix, and Leeds showed exactly where the work is.
Seven shots against 16 at Elland Road
Spurs had the ball. They finished with around 61% of possession and completed 420 passes to Leeds’ 246. What they didn’t have was a way through.
Tottenham managed seven shots all afternoon. Leeds had 16. Both sides put four on target, but only one of them found the net, and it came from a Leeds substitute two minutes after he had come on.
The first half was better. Omar Marmoush forced a save from James Trafford and Mohammed Kudus tested him with a drive, as we covered in our Leeds 1-0 Tottenham match report. Then Mathys Tel went off injured in the 43rd minute after Jayden Bogle’s challenge, and the threat went with him.
Ten goals in ten games
The bigger worry is the season as a whole. Spurs have scored 10 goals in 10 Premier League games. That is not the record of a side that can chase a game.
Five blanks already
Leeds was the fifth league match this season in which Tottenham failed to score. The others were the 3-0 defeat at Brentford, the 2-0 home loss to Newcastle and the goalless draws with Nottingham Forest and Everton.
The defence has been the stronger half of the team. Spurs have conceded 11 and kept four clean sheets, including the wins at Chelsea and at home to Crystal Palace. When they keep the opponent out, they have a platform. When they don’t, the attack hasn’t shown it can carry them.
Why does it matter so much?
Because going behind is going to keep happening. Even a good side concedes first in plenty of games across a season. If every one of those is a defeat or, at best, a draw, the ceiling stays low however tight the defence becomes.
Where does it leave Spurs in the table?
Tottenham sit 10th with 12 points from 10 games, three wins, three draws and four defeats. It is the first league defeat since the 3-2 home loss to Aston Villa in September.
The gap below is still small. Coventry City are 16th on nine points, three behind, and Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Ipswich Town, who are all around Spurs, have played a game fewer.
That matters at a club that has only just escaped two relegation battles and, as the chief executive admitted this week, drew up a plan for relegation last season. Nobody is talking about the bottom three yet, but nobody can afford to ignore it either.
Verdict: Spurs have to learn to chase a game
The winning run was real. We said before the Palace game that Tottenham’s momentum was real, and three wins in a row backed that up. Two of them, at Chelsea and against Palace, were built on clean sheets, which is exactly the kind of game this side knows how to manage.
The international break gives De Zerbi two weeks to work on the other scenario. A side with Kudus, Marmoush and Tel in it should be able to turn possession into chances when it is a goal down. Until it does, 39 will keep growing, and so will the doubts.
