Much was made of Tottenham’s propensity to capitulate last season, resulting in their worst Premier League campaign and Ange Postecoglou’s dismissal, but here was further evidence of the new chapter being patiently written by Thomas Frank.
Facing a Leeds side buoyed by an encouraging start to the season and a typically vociferous home crowd, Spurs might have buckled in this kind of encounter last term. In filthy conditions they stood their ground to maintain their upward trajectory.
How very un-Spursy. Tottenham are evolving just nicely under Frank and made their class tell with goals from Mathys Tel and the £55m summer signing Mohammed Kudus – his first for the club – either side of a first-half equaliser from the Leeds winger Noah Okafor.
Leeds lacked nothing in spirit, but Spurs showed their class – and no little resilience either. Here they claimed a third victory from four unbeaten away games in the Premier League this season.
This was just Leeds’s fourth defeat in 50 league games here since Daniel Farke took charge in the summer of 2023. Granted, the past two seasons were spent in the Championship, but there is something special about the febrile atmosphere created at this vintage stadium.
The earlier downpour gave way to beautiful sunshine when the teams emerged and “Marching on Together” was belted out with gusto by the home faithful, including the club legend Eddie Gray in the directors’ box. The man known in these parts as Mr Leeds United was, though, denied the prospect of brothers Archie and Harry Gray, his great-nephews, facing each other.
Archie, 19, joined Spurs from Leeds in the summer of 2024 while 16-year-old Harry, who made his senior bow for Leeds in the Championship last term, watched on from the stands with a hip flexor injury denying him any involvement in the match. Archie – whose father, Andy, and grandfather, Frank, also played for Leeds – was among Tottenham’s substitutes, but did not get on.
Leeds made a vibrant start. They went agonisingly close in the seventh minute when Anton Stach delivered a deep free-kick and the former Tottenham defender Joe Rodon arrived to head against the outside of a post. Spurs, with Tel picked to start ahead of Richarlison, gradually steadied themselves and João Palhinha sent a fizzing 20-yard shot over the crossbar.
The visitors then began to probe intricately and forced Karl Darlow into action in the 15th minute when Xavi Simons’s neat pass found Destiny Udogie advancing inside the left channel. His cross-shot was parried by Darlow and Spurs continued to give the impression they could move through the gears when the opportunities arose – and so it proved in the 23rd minute.
Rodrigo Bentancur won possession on halfway and found Kudus, whose neat pass inside the right channel invited Tel to drive at the defence. He hit a fierce right-foot shot that took a deflection off Pascal Struijk and flew past Darlow for his first goal this season.
Leeds almost fashioned a swift riposte, but Dominic Calvert-Lewin blazed wildly over the bar from inside the area. They were level, though, in the 34th minute when Brenden Aaronson’s strike was parried by Guglielmo Vicario into the path of Okafor, who tapped home from close range.
Chances continued to proliferate at the other end for Tottenham, who were always lively on the counterattack, and on the stroke of half-time Wilson Odobert’s cross was greeted by Tel, whose header hit the bar.
That was a let-off for Leeds, who were unchanged for a fourth successive game, but they shaded possession during the first half and almost led shortly after the interval. Calvert-Lewin’s low strike was well saved by Vicario before Stach’s whipped ball across the face of goal failed to find a teammate.
Having failed to take their chances, Leeds were punished when Kudus pilfered possession from Gabriel Gudmundsson and cut inside before hitting a low, left-foot shot that again deflected off the unfortunate Struijk and left Darlow flat-footed.
Spurs remained dangerous on the break, but Leeds were denied a dramatic equaliser in stoppage time when the substitute Joël Piroe’s shot was superbly tipped around a post by Vicario and Struijk went close moments later with a header.
