Dermot Gallagher said what every Tottenham fan was thinking about Leeds moment

Dermot Gallagher thinks Leeds United were 'lucky' during a key moment during Monday night's clash with Tottenham in North London.

Spurs could only take a point from their clash with already safe Leeds United, failing to take a big opportunity after West Ham lost to Arsenal on Sunday. Tottenham could have gone more than a game clear of the Hammers with two remaining, but they remain within two points after allowing what could have been a big win to slip.

Mathys Tel went from hero to zero, scoring a superb goal to put his side only to attempt a silly overhead kick inside his own box and catching Ethan Ampadu, leading to a penalty that was dispatched.

Dermot Gallagher thinks Lukas Nmecha was lucky

Spurs could have had the chance to win it late on when James Maddison went down in the box, leading to a VAR review, but cameras spotted Lukas Nmecha just tipping the ball as he reached his leg around Maddison in what was an extremely risky tackle.

And former Premier League referee Gallagher believes it was luck more than judgement for Nmecha, whose touch of the ball meant he got away with what could have been a crushing late defeat.

“My first thought when I saw it was ‘blimey, they’ve got a penalty’,” former referee Gallagher told talkSPORT. “You were 13 minutes into stoppage time. When you see the replay, he does just catch the ball, there’s no doubt about that. But it’s one of them, he gets a bit lucky, because if he doesn’t get the ball it’s clearly a penalty.”

With Nmecha touching the ball, that did not prove to be a controversial moment, but the actual penalty was debated by some, with Ampadu appearing to lean into the contact, be that clever play or gaming the rules.

But Gallagher does think it was a legitimate spot kick. “I was surprised [Gillett needed VAR to intervene]. I often talk about clues, and the clue for me was the fact that the Leeds player, Ampadu, was actually jumping."

“That will show you how high the player’s foot was. It hasn’t just caught him on the face. He caught him on the face from a jump. That’s a really high boot.”

Ultimately, it was a silly thing for Tel to do in trying to blindly overhead kick the ball away in his own box. In many ways, it was a typical attacking player move, with a defender likely to have assessed his surroundings and attempted to clear the ball with his head.

But Spurs may not have scored had it not been for Tel's classy strike, and so it can only go down as a lesson learned for the young winger.