Leeds United suffered their 8th loss of the Premier League campaign after they lost to Tottenham Hotspur, where the Kane-Son duo couldn’t stop scoring goals as they once again combined for another goal in the league.
Toby Alderweireld added a third goal to the scoreline with Leeds not able to find the back of the net even after creating numerous chances. With one minute of stoppage time remaining, Matt Doherty was sent off receiving a second yellow card for a foul on Pablo Hernández. Tottenham comfortably defeated Leeds to move into 4th position to put the pressure on Liverpool and Manchester United.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side travelled to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to face Jose Mourinho’s Spurs in Gameweek 17, where a win for Leeds would give them hopes to enter into the Top 10 and while for Tottenham they could move into 4th position.
The visitors announced an unchanged side while Tottenham made two changes with Toby Alderweireld and Steven Bergwijn coming into the starting lineup. Leeds started the first 20 minutes very impressively by creating chances but not getting the finish right.
Harry Kane scored from the penalty spot in the 29th minute after Bergwijn was brought down by Alioski before a poor pass from the Leeds keeper Meslier was intercepted. In the 41st minute, Harrison went close for Leeds with the ball just missing from inches of the top corner, after which in the next minute Tottenham made it 2-0 with Kane turning well and running with the ball on the flank and then playing the ball into the box towards Son who made a perfect run in front of the defenders to slot it home past the keeper. This duo has surpassed 30+ goal involvements together.
In the second half of the game, Leeds once again conceded from a set piece and this time Son whipped in the ball from the corner into the head of Alderweireld which should’ve been saved by Meslier but was spilled by him and lead to the third Tottenham goal.
Leeds created many chances in the later stages but just couldn’t find the back of the net as their star striker Bamford had a frustrating game. Matt Doherty received his second yellow card with 2 minutes left to play after a challenge on Pablo Hernández. Jose Mourinho looked frustrated with Doherty’s red card but eventually his team got the clean sheet and the win and move up to 4th position in the Premier League table.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS: Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Leeds United | Premier League
Thoughts on the Game:
In the post match interview Marcelo Bielsa was asked to analyse the game he said, “We lost some balls when we were building up from the back and we weren’t winning the second balls on the set-pieces.”
Further on he added, “We suffered a goal from a set-piece and in the game we created 10 chances but didn’t score any goals, our opponents created 12 but scored three. For me the fundamental difference was the efficiency and the fact their offensive game came about through errors we could have avoided.”
The Leeds Captain Luke Ayling was asked for his assessment of his teams performance this week and he said, “Most of us are still only 17 games in, it takes a while to settle down and I think we are doing alright. It has been a real tough week. Three games in six days is what we live for and to take six points from those games makes it a good week.”
Leeds will next face Crawley Town from League 2 in the Round – 3 of The FA Cup and will then move onto to face Brighton at home on 16th January.
