Those who thought Roberto de Zerbi had cured Tottenham of all their ills should think again. How could anyone have been so naive? Tottenham, at least this version, may have improved marginally since the arrival of the season's third manager, but the same hideous streak of crippling self-harm continues to run through this dysfunctional football team.
Here, in front of an almost disbelieving home crowd, De Zerbi's team turned a shot at triumph into yet another exercise in sporting sabotage and, as such, remain as likely to plunge into the Championship as they are to stay up. The torture of the unknowing goes on.
This was their big opportunity, handed to them the day before by Arsenal of all people. Their neighbours' defeat of West Ham had opened the door, and Tottenham, after a nervy start, seemed about to walk through it and create a four-point survival cushion after French forward Mathys Tel scored a wonderful goal early in the second half. Almost immediately, they could and should have scored again. That would have sealed the game. All would have been well. But Brazilian Richarlison shanked his volley into the crowd.
Then, almost inevitably, disaster struck. Tel should have headed a dropping ball away from danger in his own penalty area but instead managed to scissor kick an opponent, Ethan Ampadu, in the face. The VAR officials were all over that one, and Leeds striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin lashed in the penalty. Leeds were the better team after that and could even have won it at the death as substitute Sean Longstaff saw Spurs goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky produce the save of his life to touch an injury-time shot onto the underside of the bar.
From a goalkeeper who has endured such a difficult season, that could one day be viewed as the save that kept Tottenham in the Premier League. We will see. It came early in thirteen minutes of added time that grew to fifteen once VAR had a late look at a Spurs penalty shout. That one wasn't given, and three subsequent corners weren't enough for Tottenham to find a way through.
So for Tottenham, now, jeopardy remains the name of the game. This was, in name at least, a game against a team with nothing left to play for. Not that you would have noticed given the way Leeds defended those late surges as though their own survival depended on it. Their efforts said everything about the intrinsically competitive nature of the Premier League. There are very few 'nothing' games in English football.
Next Tuesday it will be different. Tottenham will head to Chelsea for the Battle of the Bridge mark two, ten years after the first one. By then, if West Ham were to win at Newcastle this weekend, they could be back in the bottom three. They have, it must be said, only themselves to blame.
Here, De Zerbi picked the same team that had beaten Aston Villa to give rise to optimism that a corner had been turned. Early on, he didn't get the same level of performance. If that Villa showing had been about composure, discipline, and effectiveness, the opening stages of this one saw Spurs back to their ragged ways of old. They did improve but not for long.
Where they had been assertive at Villa Park, back in front of their own supporters they were passive and reactive. It seemed that West Ham's defeat had not quite been enough to banish Tottenham nerves. There was some early progress forward as Pedro Porro slipped a ball through for Richarlison, to which he applied a touch that was too heavy. But it took a couple of scary moments in their own penalty area to really provoke the kind of response that may have brought a goal.
Under pressure by his own goal line in the 20th minute, Tel, later to write his name all over the second half, panicked and, for reasons known only to himself, chipped the ball straight across the face of his own goal. With James Justin arriving with eyes wide open, the Leeds wing-back would surely have headed into a gaping net had Kevin Danso not managed to get a touch first. It was only slight but enough to avert danger.
Kinsky then saved really well down at his left-hand post after Joe Rodon headed a Brenden Aaronson cross towards goal at the far post. Both men had far too much time, and it was this that prompted De Zerbi to advance to the edge of his technical area to urge his players to calm down a little. Over time, some semblance of order did arrive from those in white.
The best Tottenham player in the first half was the striding midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur. When something good happened, he never seemed far away, and it was his ball through to Tel that allowed the Frenchman to ease between two defenders and poke a shot that was deflected over the bar. Bentancur then delivered a cross from the right that Richarlison shovelled into the arms of Leeds goalkeeper Karl Darlow. He was then penalised for holding on to the ball for more than the allotted eight seconds, and from that corner, Porro drove in a low shot that was hacked from the line by Pascal Struijk.
As the threat grew, so did the involvement from the crowd. They became almost expectant, not something they have had reason to feel around these parts very often this season. A nudge over the bar from holding player Joao Paulinha brought De Zerbi to his knees ten minutes before half-time, and a Bentancur header from a corner flew wide. Leeds remained in the game on the counter, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin appealed for a penalty just before half-time only to have run offside in the build-up. Had he not done so, VAR may well have been interested. His time was to come.
Spurs had improved markedly but were in need of quality. Five minutes into the second half, it arrived via Tel's right foot. The trap control he applied to a dropping ball following a corner was an old-school move, but the curled finish with his instep that followed from 18 yards was from a schoolboy's dreams. Tottenham's challenge was now mental as much as anything. Maybe it always has been. Another goal would have helped, and Richarlison should have scored it.
Soon enough and sure enough, a real test arrived. Tel chose the spectacular in attempting to volley a dropping ball away from danger only to catch Ampadu on the temple. In the Leeds player's post-match interview, he had a bruise to prove the contact. Referee Jarred Gillett missed the foul, but VAR did not, and Calvert-Lewin battered the penalty past Kinsky. Spurs suddenly had a game to go and win all over again. They couldn't do it, and the truth is that it could have got worse.
