Leeds United vs Tottenham Hotspur. Premier League.
Elland RoadAttendance36,599.
Report and free match highlights as Matt Doherty, Dejan Kulusevski and Harry Kane score inside half an hour to give Tottenham a 3-0 lead; Heung-Min Son adds fourth late on to set new Premier League record with Kane for goalscoring-assisting partnerships
Saturday 26 February 2022 18:59, UK
Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son set a new Premier League record of 37 goal combinations, overtaking Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, as Spurs beat struggling Leeds 4-0 at Elland Road.
Kane looked inspired in the second half and his assist for Son's goal late in the second half - Tottenham's fourth of the afternoon - saw the duo overtake the former Chelsea pair as the most fruitful Premier League partnership to date.
Victory marked a positive reaction from Spurs after their midweek defeat at Burnley - and Antonio Conte's alarming response to it - but there was no such solace for Leeds, who have now conceded 20 goals in five matches - four of which they have lost convincingly.
Tottenham ultimately won the game in the first 27 minutes as Leeds once again conceded a glut of early goals. The opener came inside 10 minutes as Matt Doherty latched onto Ryan Sessegnon's fizzed cross and finished past Illan Meslier.
Five minutes later and Dejan Kulusevski scored his second Spurs goal since his arrival last month. It was a goal founded on sheer determination as he drove past each white shirt and into the area from the right flank before slotting home into the near corner with a fine finish.
Kane added the third with his own brilliant effort in the 27th minute. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg slotted a sublime ball through for the striker, who was in behind his marker. It was then a calm, tapped finish into the far corner. VAR checked for offside, but there was no case to answer.
Oddly, Leeds registered the better stats in many areas in the first half - although did finish it without a shot on target - and began to test Tottenham in the final 15 minutes. The signs were there between the second and third goal as Robin Koch hit the post, before Hugo Lloris made a fine save from Raphinha's left-wing cross. Luke Ayling also nodded a free header just wide as the half came to a close.
Leeds began the second half well, but Spurs were soon in the hunt for their fourth goal. In a mirror of the first goal, Doherty sent in a cross from the right with Sessegnon driving in at the back post to meet it, but the 21-year-old could not quite apply the finish.
Meslier and Robin Koch both made blocks from Doherty and Son respectively, before Sessegnon saw an effort hammer into the side of the net. Kulusevski tried to adopt the same tactics for his opener soon after, but Meslier was level to his shot this time around.
But Leeds' best chance of the game came in the 76th minute. It was a superb break from the hosts as Stuart Dallas drove goalwards, with Hugo Lloris' coming out of the 18-yard box to meet the midfielder. However, his attempted clearance only allowed Dallas further through. He then had the goal at his mercy, but indecision allowed Spurs defenders the chance to reach the area with Ben Davies blocking the eventual effort.
After numerous chances to add their fourth, Spurs did eventually make the breakthrough late on as Son slotted past Meslier. The win sees Tottenham into seventh, level on 42 points with West Ham and boosts their hopes for a European finish.
For Leeds, their worrying slide continues. They remain in 15th, three points above the drop zone, but having played more games than the teams around them.
Kane has now scored 99 goals and Son 61 when they have shared the pitch in the league, with Son setting up Kane on 19 occasions and Kane returning the favour 18 times - meaning 37 of their 160 goals as a partnership have seen them assist one another.
Their 14 combinations in 2020-21 set a single-season record and while they have not reproduced that form this term, Kane set up Son against Newcastle in October while the England captain's first goal against Manchester City came from Son's cross. They combined once again to seal Tottenham's big win at Elland Road.
They overtake Drogba and Lampard, who combined for 36 goals at Chelsea. Current Everton manager Lampard is Chelsea's record goalscorer with Drogba fourth on that list, and the pair's Stamford Bridge careers overlapped long enough for them to score 152 between them in the same line-up.
Almost one in four of those saw them provide the chances for one another, firmly establishing them as one of the most effective attacking partnerships ever even as Lampard operated from midfield.
Soccer Saturday pundit Paul Merson:
"At the moment this rot needs to stop. I think the worrying thing for me was getting clapped off last Sunday. They had just been beaten by their arch-enemies, their arch-rivals Manchester United in the biggest game of their year and they let in four goals and they are getting clapped off.
"He's pulling the wool over people's eyes. he needs to change things. His squad is depleted, I know he's got big players out, but he has to change it. You can't keep going to Liverpools and Man Uniteds and opening games up and get beaten sixes and fours. You have to stop it. At the moment, I worry for them, really worry for them.
"I think the fans need to get a bit stronger. Don't start clapping your team off. If I got beat by Tottenham four at Highbury when I was playing there is no way I would be getting clapped off. Just go home. You don't have to boo, I'm not saying boo and throw shoes at them.
"They've worked so hard to get to where they are in this league, and at the moment it is fizzling away. I love watching Leeds, I have no affinity to Leeds and I love watching them, but I know there is going to be goal after goal, no matter what end it's going to be - and that's worrying.
"Every neutral wants to watch Leeds United play football and that's not right. That's not right, not at the moment, it's not time for all of us to want to watch Leeds United play football."
Tottenham manager Antonio Conte:
"It is the first time I saw my mark with this system… it means that the work is starting to work. It was a good performance for us in a stadium that's very difficult against a strong team that is not simple to play against.
"What I wanted to see today was the right spirit, the right character, the right desire to fight, to win the ball, win the duels against a team that, in these situations, they are masters because they press a lot.
"I wanted answers, not just about the football aspect, but I wanted to see improvements in these aspects that, in my opinion, are very important. Usually my team are strong not only on the pitch, not only to play football, but strong mentally and in their desire, their spirit.
"Sometimes I use softer words, sometimes I use strong words but with only one target - to improve in many aspects. I think these group of players have shown me commitment every day.
"But this is not enough. We need to continue in many aspects, but today, I saw a great desire, a great will to fight together in every zone of the pitch. This has to be a starting point for us and not only an episodic game.
"Today, I have seen great unity, great solidity and not only on the football aspect but also in the mental aspect. If we improve in these aspects, we can become a strong team. I want to be the coach of a strong team and in the past… I want my players to be warriors and our opponents have to feel this."
Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa:
"It's not just this game, but a succession of results and against these types of results, there's no way of not feeling badly.
"In this moment, it's very difficult for us to impose our way of playing. I need no help to understand that the same way a style of play developed and was effective… so when the opposite happens, I have to admit that what I'm proposing isn't working.
"Our way of playing has two great needs - there's a press in the opponents' half that prevents the ball getting to their forwards cleanly so when the opponents' forwards receive the ball, that they find themselves uncomfortable because the pass that found them was difficult. In the last three games, that hasn't happened.
"We didn't manage to press well in their build-up, we made enormous efforts but it didn't work. So the passes that came from back to front, they could always pick them. In that case, it's not easy for the line to recover the ball to become efficient.
"This explanation makes the players exempt because when you propose something that the players aren't able to take forward, they lose culpability.
"I can't deny we're not getting what we used to get. But when the players give their all physically with so much effort, clearly I have to think that what I'm proposing, it's not that they don't want to do it, they're just not managing to do it.
"The amount of goals we've conceded, of course it has a decisive influence on the results. No team can think of progressing within the competition if you have a defensive weakness that is so manifested as ours.
"It's not only a problem with how we defend, but the total function of the team… we're a team where one thing influences the other and that link has stopped being efficient.
"The problems are not due to the absence of the players, with the totality of all the players, things would have been less difficult. But it's clear we shouldn't be on this run of results due to the absence of the players."
It was not the easiest start to the season for Kane, but he looked back to his best against Leeds. Most of his influential moments came in the second half as he consistently won the midfield battles before releasing his team-mates - one instance saw him break the Premier League record for goal combinations with Son.
And let's not forget, he scored a goal of his own too and it was incredibly well taken in the first half. A good afternoon all around for the striker.
Manager Antonio Conte said after the game: "Harry today, his performance was incredible, with the ball but I want to underline without the ball… When you have your best player on the pitch doing this, it is also an example for the other players."
Next up for Leeds is a trip to Leicester in the Premier League next Saturday; kick-off 12.30pm. Tottenham are back in FA Cup action on Tuesday, facing Middlesbrough in the fifth round. They then return to Premier League action on Monday 7 March when Spurs host Everton, live on Sky Sports; kick-off 8pm.
