Mathys Tel has to bring his most underrated trait for Tottenham vs. Leeds
Mathys Tel has to be riding a high right now after Zinedine Zidane pre selected him to the French national team. The Tottenham Hotspur starting left winger has come on strong these last two weeks since Roberto De Zerbi called im back into the 11, first staking his claim with a brilliant solo goal at the end of the 2-0 win over Chelsea to place an exclamation park on his performance and then following it up with four key passes and six dribbles completed in Spurs dominant 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.
It won't get easier for an attack that still did not personally score any of the two goals against Palace last weekend. Even though Leeds United allowed two goals to Bournemouth last weekend and are showing signs of slipping while Spurs are on the rise, they have the best defense in the bottom half of the Premier League and the third best in the league overall. Only Arsenal and Brighton, both clubs in the top three right now, have allowed fewer than the eight goals the Peaocks have surrendered thus far in 2026/27.
The matchup for Tel won't be easy either. As the left winger, he figures to go up against James Justin on the right side of the Leeds defense. Justin is one of the best ball winning defenders in the Premier League and wicked fast. He has 2.7 tackles and 1.1 interceptions won in the Premier League this season with 4 tackles and 1.5 interceptions won in his League Cup appearances to boot.
Mathys Tel needs to have grinta
Justin pretends a real challenge for Tel, who has been dominating teams one on one with one of the best dribble completion rates in the Premier League. And he has shown signs of the goal scoring, though not consistently - and his finishing will have to be on point to beat arguably the best keeper of the current Premier League season in James Trafford.
But above all else, Mathys Tel will need to show grit. He has a lot of it, and as exciting of a player as the Frenchman is, his grit and determination are probably the best things about him. Tel is going to need to play strong and play nasty in order to get inside of Justin, get into the box, fight for every chance, and get those quality shots off against the Leeds defense. He has to fight for every inch of space and every ball, and if he can do that, it could be enough for him to score against the Peacocks two years running.
