Tottenham's attacking abilities have been brought into question, so how will they fair against a Leeds side they have scored four goals against in each of their past three encounters. BBC Sport explores some of the key themes going into Saturday's match. After just one defeat in 10 under new boss Thomas Frank, criticism of fourth-placed Tottenham feels somewhat harsh, but grumblings at their lack of attacking cohesion are growing.
Tottenham's attacking abilities have been brought into question, so how will they fair against a Leeds side they have scored four goals against in each of their past three encounters. BBC Sport explores some of the key themes going into Saturday's match.
After just one defeat in 10 under new boss Thomas Frank, criticism of fourth-placed Tottenham feels somewhat harsh, but grumblings at their lack of attacking cohesion are growing.
Spurs' top scorer so far this season is own goals with four, which tells its own story about what work Frank still has to do in the final third of the pitch.
Mitigation for their lack of creativity from midfield comes in the form of missing injured playmakers James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski. However, there remains plenty of attacking options, but making them gel is taking longer than anticipated.
No side in the Premier League has outperformed their expected goals as much as Frank's side, having scored four more goals than their xG of seven, a figure that a club is unlikely to sustain over the course of a season.
Also top of his to-do-list will be stopping his team having to rely on late equalisers to salvage a point, having done so in three out of their last four matches.
One thing the north Londoners do boast is an excellent record against Leeds United and have scored four goals in each of their last three encounters, two of which ended in 4-0 and 4-1 away victories. They have never won three league games in a row at Elland Road, while no side has ever scored four goals in three successive away league matches at Leeds.
Elland Road, though, has been a fortress of late and they have gone an entire year unbeaten in home league games dating back to 14 September 2024 versus Burnley.
Manager Daniel Farke has had the luxury of naming the same starting XI for three straight matches as their encouraging return to the top flight goes on with a record of two wins, two draws and two defeats.
After scoring only once in their first four games back in the Premier League they have notched five across their past two. All their top-flight goals this season has been scored by a different player, with Sean Longstaff becoming the sixth when he opened his account for the club in the draw with Bournemouth last week.
The ex-Newcastle midfielder is proving to be an astute signings so far. Since he made his first start for the club on 30 August, he has made the joint most tackles in the top flight (19), while the eight chances he has created can only be beaten by three players.
Set-pieces, which are the talk of the Premier League right now, could again dominate the narrative. Just three teams have netted more set-piece goals than Leeds' four this season, but the Whites have shipped six set-piece goals themselves – only West Ham have conceded more.
Category: General Sports
