Football Daily | Tottenham’s fabled penchant for self-sabotage is still very much to the fore

A STORY TO TEL

Football Daily didn’t get where it is today putting in more effort than is strictly necessary. But if Tottenham thought a Leeds team who had just guaranteed their own Premier League safety would give them an easy ride in their own harrowing survival battle, they were quickly disabused of any such notion. Lending credence to our possibly half-baked theory that most teams are determined to send Spurs down because it would be a great laugh, Daniel Farke’s side scarcely left an inch of grass uncovered at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. While Spurs welcomed visitors whom they hoped would be sipping metaphorical mojitos “on the beach”, the dawning realisation that Leeds hadn’t travelled to London to mess about was a sight to behold. Leeds contested every loose ball, tackle and throw-in fiercely, showing the kind of intensity that has been conspicuously absent from much of Tottenham’s play this season. Only time will tell if the team from Yorkshire successfully pounded a nail into the Tottenham coffin lid but it certainly wouldn’t have been for the want of swinging the collective hammer.

While lexicographers are still pondering a suitable adjective to describe Tottenham’s fabled penchant for self-sabotage, it was very much to the fore on Monday night. Winger Mathys Tel had what can charitably be described as a mixed game, scoring a wonder-goal and then conceding a penalty with an ill-advised overhead kick straight into Ethan Ampadu’s coupon. After falling behind, Leeds equalised from the spot and could have won were it not for a quite sensational added-time save from Igor Tudor’s favourite goalkeeper, Antonin Kinsky. “We made too many mistakes,” sighed Roberto De Zerbi after the game. “If we want to win we have to reduce the mistakes, but we knew before this game it will be tough until the end of the season, until the last game. It is tough for us and tough for everyone.” The mood of Tottenham’s head coach was not improved by a late, late VAR decision that went against his team, when Lukas Nmecha was correctly adjudged to have not fouled James Maddison, who was given a warm welcome back from long-term knack that was so effusive even Farke felt compelled to give him a hug.

“There have been some dark days in the last year,” parped Maddison, speaking specifically about his own situation rather than that of the club who pay his wages. “It has been a really tough year for me mentally but I’m at the end of the tunnel now so I can kind of look back on that with fondness because I’m as mentally strong as I can be after going through that.” Just two points ahead of West Ham with two games to play, Spurs will need all the mental fortitude they can muster to acquire the four points required from their remaining two games to guarantee safety. They play Chelsea next week at a stadium where they’ve won only once in their past 32 attempts. at a ground where they haven’t won in 10 league games since early December.