Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United: Premier League – live! | Football

Now, Spurs v Leeds should be a cracker, but it’s not the most mouth-watering game this lunchtime. If I were you, I’d bugger off over here.

Here’s more on the Three Unwise Men of Tottenham Hotspur

Pre-match reading

All work and no play makes Jose a dull boy. He’ll love the fact Burnley have just been 24 hours’ notice as well.

“Covid this, Covid that, why don’t you f*****g play for them?!”

Yep, more Covid news I’m afraid: tomorrow’s match between Burnley and Fulham is off after more positive tests at Craven Cottage.

Spurs return to a back four, with Toby Alderweireld and Steven Bergwijn replacing Davinson Sanchez and Sergio Reguilon. Erik Lamela is not even in the squad. He, Reguilon and Giovani Lo Celso were pictured breaking Covid rules with West Ham’s Manuel Lanzini and other less famous people on Christmas Day. Lo Celso is injured so he wouldn’t have been involved anyway.

Leeds are unchanged, but you knew that already.

Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1) Lloris; Doherty, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies; Winks, Hojbjerg; Bergwijn, Ndombele, Son; Kane.
Substitutes: Hart, Reguilon, Rodon, Tanganga, Sissoko, Alli, Fernandes, Lucas Moura, Vinicius.

Leeds United (4-1-4-1) Meslier; Dallas, Ayling, Struijk, Alioski; Phillips; Raphinha, Rodrigo, Klich, Harrison; Bamford.
Substitutes: Casilla, Cresswell, Casey, Hernandez, Shackleton, Jenkins, Poveda-Ocampo, Costa, Huggins.

Referee David Coote.

Hello, happy new year and welcome to one of the first treats of 2021. You could make a movie poster for this game, with taglines plastered from top to bottom in a font that oozes gravitas. Cynicism v optimism; pragmatism v idealism; Kane v Ayling; seventh v eleventh; counter-attack v attack-attack-attack; overt charisma v inscrutable charisma. Mourinho v Bielsa.

Yep, it’s Spurs v Leeds, the first meeting between two of world football’s most iconic coaches since April 2013. Jose Mourinho has a perfect record against Marcelo Bielsa – his Real Madrid won all four matches against Athletic Bilbao between 2011-13 – and he could really do with extending that today.

Spurs have taken only two points from their last four league games, dropping to seventh in the table as a result. The media, traditional and social, love a Mourinho crisis, so he can’t afford many more bad results. Yet if Spurs win this, their game in hand, they will move to within four points of Liverpool and Manchester United. It’s the Hokey Cokey title race.

Leeds will stay 11th unless they win by three goals, but a victory would move them level on points with fifth-placed Chelsea; that’s how tight the league is at 11.29 am on 2 January 2021.

Leeds’ last four games have ended 5-2, 2-6, 1-0 and 5-0, so don’t bother trying to predict what might happen, or understand it when it does. Just pour a nice kombucha – new year, new you, right – swing a boot onto the nearest footstool and enjoy the entertainment.

Kick off 12.30pm.