11th May 2026. Premier League.
What a superb, battling, gritty, and determined performance that was from Leeds!
I actually enjoyed that as much as many of our hard-won victories this season.I guess the reason is that we didn’t have that spectre of relegation hovering over us last night; that was all on the home team. And that fact alone makes our 1-1 result there even more impressive. Spurs' need for points was far greater than ours, and yet you would have been hard-pressed to realise that if you’d just dropped into watch the game from another planet.
Let’s be honest, though, technically, we were not very good for much of the game. We have to factor in that we started the game without both regular wing-backs – Gaby Gudmundsson and Jayden Bogle were missing – and that we were again without our recent talisman, Noah Okafor. Other players also looked as if the release of pressure had just dented their will to win; ever so slightly.
Hence, I thought Dominic Calvert-Lewin was off his game again – having been so much better last time out against Burnley, for example. He wasn’t holding up the ball often enough or winning those headers in midfield; we know he can. Ao Tanaka was his usual mixture of tenacious tiger and headless chicken, a description that would also fit the display from Brenden Aaronson, too. Dan James can probably be excused for his largely anonymous display, having had so little game time this season and then having to fill in defensively for large parts of the game.
And Karl Darlow looked a bit less confident than of late, dawdling on his clearances and too often not spotting that a Spurs player was too close to the Leeds man he was passing to. He also gave away a corner for the sin of holding the ball for more than 8 seconds; he ought to have learned that one by now. Maybe we had managed to sneak a few sherbets on Sunday night after our safety was assured, and that accounted for our lack of clarity!
Having said all that, none of our lads was short of spirit, and there were the usual immaculate performances from the likes of Captain Fantastic Ethan Ampadu, who was immense (again) and at the heart of defence with Joe Rodon, Jaka Bijol and Pascal Struijk all on song.
Leeds were probably lucky to get to the halftime break unscathed, having survived no less than 10 goal attempts (three for Leeds) and one big chance that Joao Palhinha whacked over the bar from six yards out. Richarlison also fluffed a six-yarder straight at Darlow. Leeds' best effort came from a Rodon header, with replays showing the impressive Antonin Kinsky only just stopped it right on the goal line at the foot of a post.
It came as no surprise when Spurs grabbed the lead just after the break – a fine curling shot from Mathys Tel that bent inside the far post. It was such a potentially big goal for the home side that the stadium inevitably turned into a cauldron, and I confess I didn’t think we’d come back from that, especially remembering our London curse! Spurs should have gone two-up when Richarlison missed another decent chance, blasting the ball over the bar from ten yards – he’s a bit of a show pony, is the white-haired Brazilian.
But there is a reason the Spurs are fighting relegation, and it’s mainly a fragile and nervy defence that lets them down too often. In the first half, they almost committed Hari-Kari when Tel inexplicably tried to clear the ball from his own byline right across the area!
Only a timely intervention by the head of Kevin Danso prevented James Justin from getting his head to that one. But in the 74th minute, it was the erratic Tel again, trying an audacious bicycle kick on the edge of his area that caught Ampadu on the forehead. Quite how or why referee Jarred Gillett didn’t give the penalty on the field, I’ll never know, but thankfully, VAR eventually intervened and got him to see sense, although his body language gave the impression that he’d rather not award it to Leeds!
I was nervous when DCL stepped up as he wasn’t exactly having his best game, but he dispatched the spot-kick emphatically despite Richarlison having told Kinsky correctly where the striker was going to put his shot.
The heart seemed to have been torn from Spurs with that equaliser, and the home crowd had started to ebb away when the board signalled there would be another 13 minutes of added time at the end! It was the West Ham cup game all over again, and we know what happened there! This was a different scenario, though. Spurs were living on their nerves, and Leeds suddenly looked better than they’d been all game!
It was Leeds looking more likely to break the deadlock, and it was substitute Sean Longstaff in the centre of things again after his 93rd-minute introduction, as well as the disruptive effect that Willy Gnonto and Lukas Nmecha were having. Somehow, Kinsky deflected a Longstaff shot onto the crossbar after the midfielder had been put through with a sliced pass from Justin and then, from a rare Leeds corner, Rodon headed towards the back post where Longstaff again met it on the stretch, this time screwing the ball across the face of goal.
James Maddison came on for a cameo at the end to a huge roar from the home fans, and they thought he’d saved their season when he went down dramatically after a challenge by Nmecha. Again, referee Gillett turned the penalty appeals away, and replays showed that not only did Lukas get a toe to the ball but Maddison had thrown himself down as well. No penalty, and maybe, just maybe, we’ve finally put the London curse to bed for good.
So, another point on the road for Leeds – and our nine-game unbeaten league run continues. It has been a magnificent end to the season for the Mighty Whites, scraping points at difficult venues at the business end of the season.
The impression is that we have a terrific core to a side that, with a few additions this summer, can really make an impact in the Premier League. Let’s hope so. You have to go up the table as far as Brighton in 7th to find a team that has lost fewer games than Leeds this season, and remember, each position is worth an extra £2.8m; so the incentive is there to grab more points in our final two games. Bring them on!
Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur 1 (Tel 51’)
Leeds United 1 (Calvert-Lewin pen 74’)
Spurs: Kinsky (GK), Danso, Palhinha, Richarlison, Tel (Maddison 85’), Udogie (Spence 85’), Gallagher, Porro, Bentancur (Bergvall 81’), van de Ven (C), Kolo Muani. Subs not used: Austin (GK), Dragusin, Bissouma, Gray, Matar Sarr, Souza.
Leeds: Darlow (GK), Ampadu (C), Struijk (Bornauw 56’), Rodon, James (Gnonto 63’), Calvert-Lewin, Aaronson (Nmecha 63’), Bijol, Stach, Tanaka (Longstaff 90’), Justin. Subs not used: Perri (GK), Piroe, Byram, Chadwick, Lienou.
Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Referee: Jarred Gillett
Attendance: 61,048
Booked: Danso, Palhinha, Porro (Spurs) Rodon (Leeds)
61,048
