The biggest threat Leeds pose to snapping Tottenham’s winning run

Fun fact, folks: our upcoming opponents, Leeds United, haven’t won a Premier League game that kicked off before 3 p.m. (GMT) since August 2022.

It’s a run of 21 games, a Premier League record.

Combine that with their current winless run of five games, and it’d appear as if we’re heading for a classic case of “Dr. Tottenham...”

There’s brewing discontent at Elland Road as a result of their recent malaise, with some supporters suggesting that Daniel Farke, who’s tactical switch midway through last season, ensured they stayed up with relative ease.

A summer window in which they bought James Trafford, the highly-rated Tarik Muharemović and purple patch fiend Harry Wilson elevated expectations, and they haven’t been matched as of late. Still, Leeds sit 12th in the Premier League table after nine games.

It’s no disaster, but you just get the impression that fans are waiting to pile onto Farke. Perhaps the calls for his head will be particularly vociferous if Spurs waltz up to West Yorkshire and extend their winning run to four games. A newfound swagger is emanating from the Lilywhites, and they’re facing Leeds at the right time.

Forget Arsenal, Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off is a duel between the two of the Premier League’s new set-piece kings.

While Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea have been the two most proficient sides from dead-ball situations this season, no team is currently more reliant on set-pieces for attacking success than Leeds.

According to Opta, Farke’s side have scored 44.44% of their Premier League goals from set plays—joint-highest in the division along with Everton. 44.23% of their shots have been generated from such situations, as has 42.51% of their total xG (both league highs).

Spurs are no slouches in this regard either, and they came to the fore for the Lilywhites against Crystal Palace’s 10 men. De Zerbi’s side are gradually improving against deep-lying defences, but the Italian doesn’t have all the profiles he needs that give him the best chance of compromising defensive compactness.

Leeds will be rough and rugged on home soil this weekend, and will continue to emphasise on set-pieces as a primary method of chance creation. Encouragingly, we don’t have the same issues defending dead balls as we did under Ange Postecoglou.

Andreas Georgson has sophisticated the Lilywhites in this area of the game at both ends of the pitch. We’ve conceded just two set-piece goals so far, and surrendered 2.56 xG—the joint-seventh-lowest in the division.

Stymie Leeds on this front, and Spurs will be on course for their fourth successive victory.