Yet another game dictated by VAR now, rather fittingly, looks set to bring the 2025-26 relegation battle down to the tightest of margins. That, however, is only going to cause emotions to waver as wildly – and as cruelly – as we saw in this 1-1 draw between Tottenham and Leeds.
A big week for officials somehow had another crescendo. Some might say a nadir, given it makes for an even bigger season for officials.
Two successive VAR calls saw Roberto De Zerbi and most of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium quickly go from exhilaration to exasperation.
James Maddison, finally returning as a sub after Dominic Calvert-Lewin had equalised from a VAR-granted penalty, was denied what would have almost been a deus ex machina of an intervention. He ghosted into the box to be felled by Lukas Nmecha… only for Jared Gillett to quickly rule that it wasn’t a foul.
And, from all that, what must Nuno Espirito Santo be thinking?
Just 28 hours before this, the West Ham United manager was philosophically lamenting the “duality” of Premier League directives on grappling. He now might be left musing – a little more hopefully – on the duality of VAR. It takes away. It gives. A bit like Mathys Tel with his performance here.
Referee Gillet was here almost as big a character as Chris Kavanagh had been at the London Stadium on Sunday.
There should be significant mention of Antonin Kinsky, however, who here offered a brilliant save from that could yet be as important as David Raya’s – and was probably even more difficult.
For now, two successive decisions have ultimately granted West Ham a huge reprieve after Sunday’s dejection against Arsenal. The 1-1 draw from Calvert-Lewin’s penalty and that Maddison decision now leave West Ham a mere two points behind Spurs rather than four.
That can turn in one match, rather than requiring two. And next up is Newcastle United away for West Ham, and Chelsea away for Spurs.This is going to be nerve-shredding.
This one was bad enough for Spurs, if also so frustrating in its own way.
They saw glimpses of what this season could have been, what Tel might yet be, without all the immense weight of this campaign.
Leeds only added to that by not letting any satisfaction at survival dim their intensity.
That was the other twist to that West Ham result. The 1-0 Arsenal win ensured Leeds secured survival, but they looked in the mood to build on it right now rather than rest on it.
They were up for it. Their fans were even up for goading Spurs by singing “Leeds are staying up”.
This was just another game under De Zerbi, however, which showed how Spurs should never have been in this situation in the first place.
When you see how aggressive they look now, how tactically coherent they are a proper identity already, it’s impossible not to wonder why they wasted such time with the Igor Tudor experiment. Why not go bigger for De Zerbi earlier, if this was what it meant?
Long before Tel’s supreme opener, they were laying siege to the Leeds goal. Joao Palhinha burst through for a shot that was somehow blazed over. Rodrigo Bentancur had a header he should have scored. Pedro Porro was creating chaos from one side, Tel from the other.
It looked like something had to give – only for Spurs to give up space at the other end. This obviously remains a flawed and stretched squad, which is why they were always going to be stretched on the actual pitch, too.
There was already one warning when Calvert-Lewin got through shortly before half-time, only to be felled by Destiny Udogie. It looked a certain penalty – until it was shown that Calvert-Lewin had trailed offside by a toe. That’s how much there was in it.
If only the gaps in the Spurs team were as tight.
A further issue for De Zerbi was that he was fighting against time in another way. With so few attacking options on the bench beyond Maddison, the Italian essentially had to bank on his forwards producing before they significantly flagged. Just another exasperation on the night was that they did that.
On 50 minutes, Tel fulfilled some of the potential he has shown in an occasionally frustrating spell at the club. He scored a goal that would have been worthy of keeping them up. Opportunistically placed to receive the ball in plenty of space from a deflected corner, the winger still had a lot to do. And how he did it.
Tel guided a supreme shot into the top corner of Karl Darlow’s net. It was gloriously soaring, and suggested that Spurs might just keep going with it. They of course tired, however, and came down with a bang.
Or, rather, Tel did.
On 73 minutes, after a spell where Leeds had started to get on the front foot again, Ethan Ampadu looked like he might get in behind. All that was blocking him was Tel. And if the winger’s first major moment made you wonder how he did it, the question here was again what was he thinking.
Tel inexplicably tried to bicycle kick the ball away with Ampadu so close, ensuring he also made contact with the midfielder’s head.
Referee Jarred Gillett really had no choice, even though a needlessly long wait eventually saw him have to make a very definite choice by going through the protocol of looking at the monitor.
There was no such hesitation about Calvert-Lewin. He finished the penalty brilliantly, to re-ignite this survival battle.
There was one more VAR call to come, and one huge Kinsky save to come. As regards what will tell more by the season’s end, the margins are now so thin.
