Leeds United tell Premier League what's to come despite ref show — Graham Smyth's Spurs Verdict — YEP 12/5/26

By Graham Smyth

The Verdict on Leeds United’s comeback draw at Tottenham Hotspur on Monday.

Leeds United's performance and result at Tottenham Hotspur told the Premier League that they will remain a problem to the very end, with or without jeopardy.

It was Monday August 18 when Leeds knew they would be competitive in the Premier League this season. At least that's what Edmund Riemer said prior to the trip to Spurs. Daniel Farke's assistant took the pre-game press conference and suggested that the very first game of the season and how Leeds played against Everton told him that they were going to be in with a fighting chance upon their top flight return. He could feel it that night at Elland Road. But feeling it and proving it are two very different things. Leeds still had to go and do the harder bit and gain enough points to make reality tally with belief.

Completing the job with three games to spare removed all jeopardy from their job at Tottenham. who of course can still go down. That's why their stadium announcer was giving it full beans before their inspirational video montage. That's why there were nerves in the air all night. That's why it would take something special from an already-safe and presumably slightly relieved Whites to deny what is still a star-studded Spurs side coming off the back of huge consecutive wins. James Justin told the YEP last week that mathematical safety would take weight off their shoulders.

Even without the financial considerations of finishing higher up the table - for both club and players - there was still plenty to play for. Joe Rodon was returning to Spurs with a point to prove. He dealt with Mathys Tel handily in his first duel and then showed his pace to get back in and deny Richarlison, after stepping out in an attempt to play offside that his team-mates failed to read. And after a pretty even opening 20 minutes, the Welshman came so close to opening the scoring. A short corner routine allowed Brenden Aaronson to deliver a beautiful ball to the back post where Rodon's header was clawed out on the line by Antonin Kinsky.

Anton Stach is playing for a place in the Germany World Cup squad having finally broken back into the national team picture in the most recent break. He was played into a great position by Pascal Struijk and fouled on the edge of the box, only for referee Jarred Gillett to let it go.

Aaronson's season will definitely continue into the major tournament, a home one no less. His best early work at Spurs was a block that deflected Conor Gallagher's but on the ball it was hit and miss stuff. Amid the frustrating losses of the ball were a pair of lovely passes to put Justin and Dominic Calvert-Lewin into the area, the latter was perhaps a touch later than the striker would have wanted and though he was fouled in the box, the flag correctly went up.

For Ao Tanaka, a player who plainly and often visibly wears the weight of big moments and another with World Cup hopes, playing without fear did not immediately lend itself to performance enhancement. He struggled in a first half that saw Leeds come under serious pressure. The Japan international appeared to turn his back in the area, allowing Joao Palhinha to shoot mercifully over the top. And on the right-hand side Daniel James creaked in the wing-back role. Even with Rodon's help he was unable to shut down Tel, who got into good positions and delivered dangerously into the area.

But at least when the ball did come into the box, Leeds had Jaka Bijol defending as if Leeds could still go down. He shone brightest of Farke's men throughout the first 45 minutes. Next to him Struijk showed signs of the hip injury that made him a doubt for the game. Outside him Justin was unable to give Leeds attacking width.

Level at the break but not long after

Yet despite all of Spurs' possession and time in and around the area, they went in at the break level. It wasn't until the second half that they made their superiority count for something and for all the beauty in Tel's finish, Leeds' part in the goal has to be noted. The visitors were on a promising attack when Calvert-Lewin gave the ball away, not for the first time in the evening. Spurs broke, won a corner and though Bijol headed it out, Tel was on the edge to curl into the far top corner.

Farke was forced into changes. Struijk succumbed to his hip issue, replaced by Sebastiaan Bornauw, and the game required something different. Lukas Nmecha and Willy Gnonto took over from Aaronson and James. And though Leeds did start to put some passes together, it was a man playing for neither side who took centre stage next. Gillett's performance was already well worthy of scrutiny before the moment that changed the game. He pinged Karl Darlow for holding onto the ball a split-second too long, giving Spurs a corner, infuriating Farke. He missed a reckless flailing arm from Richarlison that caught Bijol in the face. And not only did he fail to spot a high boot connecting with Ethan Ampadu's face in the Spurs box, he allowed play to continue for an age with the Leeds skipper down holding his head. It took VAR to show him the error of his ways.

When Leeds were eventually awarded the penalty that was rightly theirs, Calvert-Lewin shrugged off his earlier struggles to rattle it home and rattle the nerves of the home crowd. It did little for the collective blood pressure when Leeds immediately went on the attack again, Calvert-Lewin helping Rodon's cross towards Nmecha whose shot was partially blocked and saved.

For all the urgency in the stadium each time Spurs got the ball, it was Leeds who came closest to a winner. Justin played Sean Longstaff into a wonderful position in the area and his shot screamed goal all the way until Kinsky somehow deflected it up onto the crossbar. It was the kind of save that will be remembered for years to come if Spurs do stay up. The next best chance also fell to the visitors. Stach's cross from the left made it through to Longstaff at the back post and he could only send the ball back through the goalmouth.

Much of the remainder of the game and the quite incredible 15 minutes of time added on by Gillett saw Spurs on the attack, winning corners, but the biggest threat came from Nmecha's challenge on James Maddison. Gillett signalled a corner, apparently spotting the faintest of touches on the ball by the Leeds man. Whatever it was that he saw, the stadium and the Spurs players saw something different and bayed for a spot-kick. VAR rightly backed the referee. And Leeds defended their box to the final whistle. They fought to the last, led by Ampadu who greeted the point like it mattered just as much as the 43 that made them safe.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this game, beyond Leeds managing to make it gripping and dramatic even when there's no jeopardy, is how much the players wanted a result. They battled. Tackled. Headed. They found a way to compete, even when their possession game was off. Physicality kept them in it at times. And because they stayed in it, they could have won it late on. Spurs can rest assured that this is not a Leeds team on the beach, ahead of that final day visit to West Ham. It's a team in 14th place, hunting Newcastle United above them.