Tottenham ended their international break curse with a 2-1 win at Leeds to go third in the Premier League thanks to deflected strikes from Mathys Tel and Mohammed Kudus.
Spurs had lost their last seven matches immediately before each mid-season pause since a 1-0 win at Luton on October 7, 2023 nearly two years ago to the day, but luck was on their side at Leeds, whose unbeaten run at home in the league ends after more than a year.
Both of Spurs' goals went in against the run of play after taking a deflection off Leeds defender Pascal Struijk. The impressive Noah Okafor tapped in a deserved first-half equaliser for the hosts after Tel's opener but Kudus sealed the win with his first goal for Spurs.
This was just the second time Kudus had scored and assisted in a Premier League game and it takes his goal contributions in the competition this season to five, which is bettered only by in-form duo Antoine Semenyo and Erling Haaland (9).
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Leeds pushed hard to snatch a late point - and finished the game with three strikers on the pitch - as substitute Joel Piroe was denied in stoppage-time by Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, who used his legs to keep out Dominic Calvert-Lewin earlier in the second half.
The Leeds striker endured another frustrating afternoon in front of goal, striking well over in the first half after Rodrigo Bentancur lost the ball deep in Spurs territory, but showed his value for the equaliser by teeing up Brenden Aaronson's shot that was parried to Okafor.
Spurs held on to maintain their unbeaten away start, finishing with an Expected Goals tally of 0.52 compared to Leeds' 1.66, to move within a point of second-placed Liverpool, despite making six changes after Tuesday's Champions League trip to Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt.
Leeds stay in the bottom half after taking eight points from their first seven league games. Spurs' two last trips to Elland Road had brought about a change in the Leeds dugout, but Daniel Farke has done more than enough so far this season to be secure in his job.
Frank praises Spurs 'character and togetherness'
Not only did Spurs break their international break curse at Leeds, they also ended a run of eight Premier League matches without a victory following a game in major European competition.
The grit on show from Spurs to get over the line reflects well on the impact Frank is having. Even when not at their best, he has made this team, who lost 22 league games last season, hard to beat.
"Extremely happy with the win," said Frank. "I think if you want to build any successful team, you need mentality and character and cohesion and togetherness.
"No matter if you play like Inter or Barcelona or whatever style of play, you need that willingness to do everything to win. I think we are building that more and more on the team."
The decision to start Tel as the striker after leaving him out of Spurs' Champions League squad for the league phase raised eyebrows, but he took his opportunity and ended a run of 10 Premier League games without a goal.
"I'm so happy for him," added Frank "The character he's shown from a young man just really impressed me from day one. But of course, after a setback, not coming in the Champions League squad he played good in position where I really can see him playing and he's taking steps."
This was our first chance to see Xavi Simons in his favoured No 10 position since joining Spurs from RB Leipzig and Frank was impressed with what he saw.
Asked about the performance of his attack, Frank said: "I liked Xavi as a 10. I think that was his best game for us. There's still more to come, but I think he had some really good actions in there.
"Kudus getting his goal, which I'm pleased with. It was about time he scored that goal. You just see it looked a little bit more fluid."
'Disappointed' Farke: We were better in all aspects
Leeds, for the third game this season, will go home feeling as if they deserved more.
A freak own-goal cost them a point at Fulham, a stoppage-time equaliser cost them victory against Bournemouth and this time two deflected goals cost them what could have been three points.
Head coach Daniel Farke was frustrated with the outcome, but had no complaints about his side's performance.
"We've not won one point so far [being] lucky, but we've lost I would say really at least six points [through being] unlucky," he said.
"There are no pictures on the table, you want to win points, and this is why we play football, and for that we are disappointed," Farke added. "After this game I would be normally disappointed even with a draw, not even to speak about a loss.
"We were the better side in all aspects. We had more possession, we had more passes, we had more expected goals, we had more shots, we had more shots on target, we had more big chances created, we had more big chances missed, we had more corners."
Farke knows that sooner or later these performances will need to be converted into points.
"I can't just pray for results or bake some results, what I can do with my lads is deliver performances," he added. "This is what we did today. I hope of course that the opponent's goalkeeper is not always man of the match with unbelievable saves."
Opta stats: Kudus' impressive numbers for Spurs
Only Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenyo (both 9) have more goal involvements in the Premier League this season than Tottenham Hotspur's Mohammed Kudus (5 - 1 goal, 4 assists), with four of his five involvements coming against newly promoted sides.
Tottenham Hotspur's Mohammed Kudus scored and assisted in the same Premier League game for only the second time, previously doing so in March 2024 against Newcastle United.
Mathys Tel scored his first goal in the Premier League since April 2025 (v Wolves), ending a run of 10 games without one.
Story of the match in stats...
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