February 26, (THEWILL) – Tottenham closed a week of uncertainty regarding Antonio Conte’s future with a 4-0 thrashing of Leeds United at Elland Road.
After just 27 minutes, a flurry of goals from Matt Doherty, Dejan Kulusevski, and Harry Kane put the game out of reach, before Son Heung-min scored a merited fourth with five minutes left.
Leeds could have taken the lead in front of a loud home crowd, but Pascal Struijk’s free header from Stuart Dallas’ cracking delivery was deflected past Hugo Lloris’ post.
Son then put Illan Meslier in the Leeds goal to the test before Doherty, who had only played 322 minutes of Premier League football this season before the encounter, gave the visitors the lead after a quick Spurs counter attack.
Harry Winks played a key role in the goal, turning fast in midfield before playing a superb through ball to Ryan Sessegnon down the left flank. After avoiding the attentions of Junior Firpo, the former Fulham winger passed a perfectly weighted ball across the penalty box to Doherty, who hammered past Meslier first time.
Kulusevski, with a little help from Doherty, punished some poor defence from Firpo and Diego Llorente five minutes later with a low shot inside Meslier’s near post.
After Robin Koch’s shot struck the base of Lloris’ post, Kane collected a fantastic ball over the top from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg before side-footing a volley past Meslier from an acute angle just before the half-hour mark. Leeds increased the tempo in an attempt to claw their way back into the game, but their finest effort in the final 15 minutes of the first half was a Luke Ayling header over the bar.
The second half was as exciting as the first, with Spurs in particular creating counter-attacking opportunities. After dropping deep, Doherty, Sessegon, and Son came close, with Kane being the architect of much of their good work.
Son added a fourth late on after Kane’s superb long ball exemplified the perfection of his playing, and Raphinha still had time to jar Lloris’ post with an arrowing free-kick.
Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa is now the one under even greater pressure as a result of the outcome, as his club has now conceded three or more goals in each of their previous five Premier League games, for a total of 60 this season.
Tottenham has moved up to seventh place and is now only three points behind the top four. Meanwhile, Leeds are still in 15th place with the threat of relegation still hanging around the club as they remain just two points from Burnley in 18th place but have played two more games than Burnley.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
