The curse was finally broken on October 4th, 2025. For the first time in a long while, Tottenham Hotspur fans could feel happy during an international break.
For Spurs had somehow contrived to lose their previous seven consecutive matches before international breaks. Even Thomas Frank admitted he had told his players to win just so he didn’t have to answer questions about the bizarre streak.
Now that streak is as dead as Randal Kolo Muani’s leg once was. Spurs battled in the wind and rain at Elland Road in the kind of lunchtime kick-off you could imagine the north London side spluttering and losing in before.
It’s worth noting that Leeds had not lost at home in the league for more than a year, albeit much of that time was spent in the Championship, but it’s testament to the defensive solidity of Daniel Farke’s side, especially in front of their noisy fans.
This was a game of firsts and almost firsts. Former Spurs man Joe Rodon almost scored his first goal against his old side in the opening exchanges when he sent a header from a deep free-kick against the right-hand post with Guglielmo Vicario caught in no man’s land.
Then Spurs opened the scoring on 23 minutes when Rodrigo Bentancur, fresh from signing his new contract, won a ball in the midfield, moved it to Mohammed Kudus and the Ghanaian played it into the path of Mathys Tel. The Frenchman hit an early shot that deflected past Karl Darlow for his first goal of the season.
Kudus wasted a good chance to double Spurs’ tally with an unmarked effort over the bar before Leeds punished his profligacy on 34 minutes. Vicario pushed aside Brenden Aaronson’s deflected shot through a crowd of bodies only for Noah Okafor to react faster than Udogie to bury the loose ball.
Tel sent a looping header against the crossbar from Wilson Odobert’s cross in added time at the end of the first half.
Spurs retook the lead just before the hour mark though when Kudus ran on to a loose ball, cut inside and hit a low shot that deflected into the bottom corner for his first goal for the club.
Both sides had chances in the second half and it needed Vicario to make a big save from Joel Piroe in the final stages to ensure the hosts left with all three points.
For Spurs to hold on meant that they remain the only team to have not conceded a goal in the final 15 minutes of a Premier League game this season.
All those hours doing blocking sessions in training has paid off so far and Tottenham ended Saturday in third place in the Premier League table, two points off the top, with the joint second-best goal difference in the competition. They have lost just a single game so far if we’re not counting the UEFA Super Cup penalty shoot-out.
“Extremely happy with the win. I think if you want to build any successful team, you need mentality and character and cohesion and togetherness,” said Frank. “No matter if you play like Inter or Barcelona or whatever style of play, you need that willingness to do everything to win. I think we are building that more and more in the team.
“Let’s say in the last 10-15, where they pushed us back and we also dropped a little back. I actually think that until the 80th minute, I’m very happy with those 80 minutes, give or take. We looked very solid defensively. I think we gave the goal away, which is like a cross, deflected shot. And then, of course, I know they hit the post, but I think it looks more dangerous than it is. That’s what we gave away until the 80th minute.
“But I think we created two goals and other very good, dangerous situations and chances. So very happy with that. We need a little bit of surviving and a couple of good saves from Vicario.”
For one man in particular it was a day that he has been waiting and training for.
A fairy Tel ending
While Tottenham travelled to Norway this week to toil in Bodo, Mathys Tel did some toiling of his own as he remained back at Hotspur Way
The Frenchman channelled his frustration at being left out of the Champions League into working with the coaches at the Enfield training ground to improve himself.
People forget Tel’s age. He only turned 20 earlier this year and will join up with the France U21s next week if the numerous knocks he took at Elland Road don’t rule him out.
He is still learning his trade and this was his most encouraging performance yet as a striker. Tel ran, he pressed, he harried, he linked up play and he scored a goal with a classic striker’s run and early finish.
He was unfortunate to see his looping header hit the crossbar and he played a great ball into the run of Xavi Simons, who should have done far better with it.
Thomas Frank admitted to football.london after the game that seeing Tel score had stirred something inside of him.
“So, so almost emotional about him. So happy for him. I think the character he’s shown for a young man just really impressed me from day one,” said Frank. “Of course after a setback, not being in the Champions League squad, not being an established player.
“Maybe playing a good position where I really can see him playing and I think he’s taking steps. Also been picked a little bit for the left. Just keep training well, which he does. He trains well every day.”
Frank also had praise for two of his coaching staff for their work with Tel over recent weeks.
“Mathys stayed at home when we went to Bodo with the team. He trained well. Just getting ready for today. Big praise to Cameron [Campbell] and Justin [Cochrane] for their work with him.
“The way we worked with him from a fine game against West Ham as a striker to a better game against Doncaster, where he arrived more in the right areas, because we trained and showed him clips, to the next level today, where I think he worked hard and scored a good goal. He had other good situations. So very, very pleased.”
This was potentially Tel’s last chance for a while to impress as a striker if he had faltered. Dominic Solanke will be hoping to be back not long after the international break, while Randal Kolo Muani is working on his fitness after his interrupted start to life at the club.
Throw Richarlison into the mix and Tel is going to have his work cut out. Frank greenlit his move to Spurs though soon after arriving at the club because he felt there was something there to nurture and develop. The young attacker was one of Europe’s top young talents when Bayern signed him as a teenager.
This was his best Spurs performance so far and his ability to also play on the left means he will be given chances in the months ahead despite his European exclusion. There will also be injuries. This is Tottenham after all.
After the final whistle as the players went over to the travelling fans to applaud them, Frank grabbed Tel by the hood of his jacket and hauled him in front of the Spurs faithful to ensure he got his moment in front of them.
Tel’s fellow goalscorer Kudus also wanted to make sure the spotlight was on the young Frenchman.
“I want to give big praise to Mathys because I think it’s been a tough month, not playing, but how he carries himself, trains. He’s a top, top professional and I think you can see today when he got his chance, he was there. So it shows how professional he is,” he said.
“As a player, definitely, it’s going to be very difficult, but how he composes himself, manages himself, training, he’s so young and with this mentality, it’s really going to help him go far. And I hope that this first goal he has scored is going to open more doors for even better games and more goals coming ahead. I’m really proud of him today.”
Tel made his case on Saturday and dispelled some of the doubts from the supporters.
Attacking gel
Tel was part of an attack that is finally starting to no longer look like a group of strangers thrust together on a football pitch.
Frank has constantly stated that the attacking side of his team was going to take a little while longer to gel because of the new key playmaking components of Kudus and Xavi Simons.
That’s why his choice of front four on Saturday might have surprised some but there was a logic beneath it in the friendships. Xavi and Wilson Odobert know each other from their PSG academy days, Tel and Odobert have known each other for years through the France U21s and Mohammed Kudus has had most of pre-season to get to know everyone.
On Saturday, they all brought positives to the team even if only Tel and Kudus had something to show for it.
Odobert delivered one of his best performances in a Spurs shirt, with less of the weakness on the ball that has knocked down his previous displays. If anything he showed some moments of strength under pressure.
With that foundation he was able to create and get into good positions. The 20-year-old played a great ball to release Destiny Udogie for a first half break that Kudus should have scored from.
He then supplied the cross for Tel that his compatriot headed against the woodwork. In the second half he played another terrific ball into Xavi’s path and on top of that he tracked back on a number of occasions to help Udogie that Frank applauding him.
Xavi was unleashed in the number 10 role everyone wants to see him in and while this was a performance with mostly more bark than bite, it did show the threat he can bring when he twists and spins through the centre.
There were a few moments when the pace of the Premier League caught him by surprise and he took a touch too long on the ball.
That’s exactly what Lucas Bergvall was like in his early games in England and also in training sessions at Hotspur Way, taking too long to release the ball and getting himself tackled. The teenage Swede learned quickly and so will Xavi.
When he was sent away by Tel early in the second half, he had a great opportunity to send the ball to either of the two team-mates alongside him but instead the Dutchman tried something fancy and fluffed the pass straight back to Leeds.
“I think [the attacking play] looked promising today at times. I liked Xavi as a ten. I think that was his best game for us,” Frank told football.london. “There’s still more to come, but I think he had some really good actions in there.
“Mo again getting his goal, which I’m pleased with. It was about time he scored that goal. But no, I’m so pleased for him. So you just see he looked a little bit more fluid.”
Gabriel Gudmundsson will be having nightmares about Kudus for the coming days after the Ghanaian ran him ragged for 79 minutes. When he thought the Spurs man would go outside he would cut inside and when he thought he would drift through the centre so Kudus would race down the touchline.
His pass to Tel was perfect and his run inside and shot looked to be going in without the deflection that only slowed it slightly. It brought his first photographer chair celebration, Tel pulling it out for him and done with the raging Leeds fans behind and a bottle hurled not too far from him.
Kudus could have had two goals and an assist had he shown more composure when Udogie found him unmarked in the box during a first half break.
Frank was delighted with the Ghana international though, grabbing him by the jacket and shaking him on the pitch at the final whistle and giving him a huge hug after he had finally got the goal he had been threatening.
The tactical positioning of the front four was also fascinating. At times Xavi played high up alongside Tel before dropping back deeper into a midfield role.
From goal kicks both Kudus and Odobert pushed high up the wings and the ball would be worked to the former to flick on to the latter.
Frank is starting to get to know his players and that allows him to start experimenting with more and more tactics. Spurs will be all the more unpredictable and dangerous for it and they’ve still got some big guns to come back into the mix.
The Romero and Vicario factor
One of the key ingredients missing from the mix in Bodo in midweek was Cristian Romero. Spurs have no direct alternative to their aggressive, initiative taking captain and in the swirling wind and rain at Elland Road he led the way against Leeds’ attacking battering ram Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Nobody plays the progressive quick passes that Romero hammers between the lines either. The Argentine takes out two to three opposition players whenever he does it and it’s a key way of getting Spurs up the pitch quickly and into space.
Romero took plenty of whacks during this game and played through it with a badly bruised foot that kept him out of the Champions League clash in Norway.
He does occasionally get ahead of himself and his team-mates, not least when he wanders up the pitch and decides he wants to stay there. The Spurs bench forgave him for one in the first half which left his team exposed despite Bentancur knowing he has to drop in during such moments.
What they would not allow was when the World Cup winner decided to press like a madman in the 94th minute as he rushed almost to the halfway line. Thomas Frank yelled at the centre-back and so did most of his coaching staff, pointing back to the Spurs box to ensure he was not out of position as Leeds threw everything into the final seconds.
To be fair to Micky van de Ven, Spurs don’t really have an alternative to him either. Nobody has his pace and ability to mop up behind the backline.
In training at Hotspur Way now, Frank has centre-backs galore in Romero, Van de Ven, Kevin Danso, Radu Dragusin and Kota Takai, as well as Ben Davies.
Romero and Van de Ven remain key though and the best blend, causing one local journalist to state to Frank after the game that they might just be the best pairing in the Premier League.
“Thank you. I think the two there are very important. Of course the whole team is always important. The back four and all that, but I agree with you. You have the right pairing in the middle. It brings you a long way. So I think it’s a big credit to the two of them,” said the Dane.
“I think it’s a big credit to the performance and medical staff. They’ve done a very good job there and they are in a very good place, both of them right now, in terms of fitness, and especially, I’ll say, I’ll praise the medical and performance staff for a short turnaround with Cuti.
“He got a big bruised foot from Wolves to this, but he got around and he managed to play through the pain in the end. So it also showed character and mentality.”
There was also character shown from Guglielmo Vicario. Spurs have not conceded many this season so far but when they do, fingers appear to quickly point towards the Italian.
Occasionally he only encourages that with rash decisions, such as getting nowhere near the early free-kick that reached Rodon.
He was harsher done by with Leeds’ goal. He pushed aside Brenden Aaronson’s deflected shot, which came through a couple of Spurs players, only for Okafor to react faster than Udogie to bury the loose ball.
Vicario saw it late and reacted and although the save was a bit messy, he still made it and nobody was switched on around him in a black shirt.
One thing about the Italy international is that he does not wallow. He’s a strong character and in the end he was as crucial to the three points as Tel or Kudus were.
He made a good save from Calvert-Lewin with his foot early in the second half and then a huge late save from Piroe to ensure Spurs left with the victory.
football.london asked Frank what he made of both the goal and those crucial late saves.
“I agree [they were crucial]. Two big saves. I think the one with the left hand was the biggest one. Very, very good and big saves,” he said. “The goal, I looked at it back. I think I need to look a little bit more calmly in it. But of course you can say, can we put the ball in another place, parry it out? And Dest could be more aware.
“I also think it drops, deflection, there’s a few bits we could have done better there. So I don’t think it’s a massive mistake, if that makes sense. But I rather want to praise two big saves.”
Ultimately Spurs got the job done and there was time after the game for Archie Gray, who didn’t manage to get on, to say his proper goodbyes to the Elland Road crowd.
Earlier in the encounter, when the 19-year-old had warmed up down the touchline in one corner, the Leeds fans sang ‘You’re Leeds and you know you are’. The teenager smiled before jogging off from his warm-up.
Ben Davies appeared to be suggesting to him that he should have acknowledged it and shrugged his shoulders when Gray chose not to. The experienced Welshman was right, the Spurs fans would have understood him clapping his boyhood club’s support, even if they sang back their own song to the Leeds faithful about why he left them.
So at the end of the game, Gray walked in a lap of applause around his old stadium and the home fans, despite their disappointment at the result, gave him a proper send off after his £40million move to north London last year.
It was a fitting way for Gray to close that door and look forward to what is coming at Tottenham for both him and the team. The start has been promising but there is still plenty to work on.
“Fourteen points in seven games is two on average. That’s very good,” said Frank. “So that overall start I’m happy with. I’m extremely happy that we now on the road have won three and a draw, which I think that’s part of that. If you want to achieve anything, you need to do that. So overall a good start, but we need to continue of course.”
The Frank building blocks are being put in place and now he and Tottenham must construct something on top of them.
