New Year begins with win over Leeds - match report and debrief

The New Year started in fine style on Saturday as we opened up 2021 with a comprehensive victory and a clean sheet against a Leeds United side that had scored in every Premier League away game beforehand.

And it was a landmark occasion for Heung-Min Son, who netted his 100th goal in our colours, with Harry Kane and Toby Alderweireld joining him on the scoresheet as we ran out winners in the first league meeting between the teams since 2004.

Both sides had been bright in attacking areas before we took the lead in the 29th minute, when Steven Bergwijn was upended just inside the area by Ezgjan Alioski. Referee David Coote immediately pointed to the spot, VAR agreed and Kane made no mistake from the spot, driving straight down the middle.

It was an open game with two teams looking to play forward at every opportunity and, although the visitors had a good spell of possession mid-way through the half, it was us who got the crucial second goal two minutes before the interval – moments after Patrick Bamford had tested Hugo Lloris at the other end. Kane received Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s pass and moved away from Pascal Struijk before spotting Son’s run, placing the perfect ball in behind the Leeds defence for the South Korean international to convert his milestone goal past Illan Meslier.

With the visitors’ penchant for throwing plenty of players forward when they attacked, it felt like the game was still just about in the balance but our third goal early in the second half gave us a healthy cushion. Meslier had saved low down from Tanguy Ndombele, the ball squirming free and rolling just the wrong side of the post for a corner but, from Son’s set-piece, Alderweireld met the cross with a glancing near-post header which Meslier couldn’t prevent from going across the line.

Leeds had plenty of possession for the remainder of the game but we were resolute at the back and Lloris barely had a save to make as we saw out the game with relative ease, the only blot on the copybook being a stoppage time red card for Matt Doherty after his second bookable offence.

Back on track with solid win

Having gone four matches without a win in the league, this was a great result to get things back on track and it pretty much followed the pattern that everyone expected pre-match.

Marcelo Bielsa’s side are renowned for their high-intensity football, having plenty of runners in attacking positions when they’re on the offensive, but they give teams opportunities at the other end as well, so we knew if we could stay tight at the back, we would have a good chance of picking up three points. Indeed, Leeds dominated the possession stats with 64 per cent of the ball but we had more shots at goal and more on target throughout the 90 minutes, providing much more of a cutting edge in front of goal than our visitors.

After our opening goal from Kane’s penalty, we had chances with Alderweireld’s shot blocked by Kalvin Phillips with Kane putting the rebound wide and Bergwijn should perhaps have done better after making space for himself with a brilliant spin inside the area, only to smash the half volley high and wide.

Four minutes before the break, Jack Harrison hit a 20-yard shot just over the bar after good build-up play and then Bamford created space to get a shot away but it was straight at Lloris. We went up the other end and added our second through Son just after.

Following our third from Alderweireld – technology showing his header was just one millimetre over the line before Meslier scrambled the ball away, although Dier did put the rebound in anyway – Bergwijn went close again, latching onto Son’s ball but Meslier was quickly off his line to smother his fierce right-foot drive and the Leeds stopper was there again to deny Kane in the 66th minute, pushing his angled shot behind for a corner.

Leeds kept coming but we defended really well and it wasn’t until the 81st minute that they forced Lloris into another save, even that was straightforward enough from Raphinha’s effort.

Meanwhile Doherty will now serve a suspension following two yellow cards for challenges on Luke Ayling and Pablo Hernandez.

Ton up for Son!

He’d been stuck on 99 goals for a few games, but it was only a matter of time before Son hit his century and he duly delivered with his fine goal on Saturday. He became only the 18th player in the Club’s history to score 100 goals and the first from outside the UK and Ireland to achieve the feat.

And with Kane providing the assist for that goal, it meant the duo have now combined for a Premier League goal for the 13th time this season, equalling the record for an entire campaign, set by Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton for Blackburn Rovers in 1994/95.

With his goal against Leeds, Kane has now scored against each of the 30 Premier League teams he’s faced, the only player to score against 100 per cent of opponents he’s played against.

This was José Mourinho’s first ever meeting with Leeds in all competitions. He made two changes to his team from the draw at Wolves last weekend, with Alderweireld and Bergwijn returning in place of Davinson Sanchez and Sergio Reguilon.

Reaction on Spurs TV

'Very important three points'

José said after the game: "It was a good performance where we reached the objective of the three points, where strategically the players understood how to close the door to the danger and how to explore some fragilities in the way they play that can be exposed. I don’t say a very good performance, I say a good performance and very important three points."

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Kane 29 (pen), Son 43, Alderweireld 50.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Winks, Doherty (2), Hojbjerg; Leeds – Phillips.

Red card: Spurs - Doherty.

Referee: David Coote.

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Weather: Light cloud, sunny spells, four degrees.