Tottenham's generous hosts
Spurs fans always refer to 'Dr Tottenham' - the innate ability their team has to cure struggling team's ills. If your team is in a bad way, if they've struggled to win matches or score goals, well then Dr Tottenham will see you now.
Except at Elland Road on Saturday afternoon, Dr Leeds was already in attendance.
After a week in which Spurs threw away the positive vibes built at the Etihad Stadium on the rain-sodden pitch at Turf Moor and Antonio Conte's emotional rollercoaster swerved all over the place, Tottenham really needed the generous gifts of Leeds.
Marcelo Bielsa's team were so open that they played to Spurs' strengths and with 11 shots on target and Harry Kane conducting everything, 4-0 didn't even really reflect the game.
It could have been 8-3 with the nature of Leeds' constant pushing forward and defensive mistakes and Spurs' speed on the break.
Conte's outburst in the week had been a challenge to his players, a ploy to scare them into better ways.
After Saturday's win, he told football.london that his questions to them had been answered.
"Today we played a really good game, good performance, good football but what I wanted to see today was the right spirit, the right character, the right desire to fight, to win the ball, win duels against a team that in this situation are masters," he said.
"They go and press a lot, they have duels in every area, every zone of the pitch. Today I asked this of my players. I wanted to see answers not only about football aspects. I wanted to see improvements in this aspect, which in my opinion are very important.
"Usually my teams are strong, not only on the pitch to play football, they are strong mentally, strong in their desire, their spirit. The opponent who has to play against us has to know this.
"We are working also in this aspect and today I ask for this answer, especially after the Burnley defeat.
"We lost a game because the opponent showed more desire than us. Today I asked for big answers from my players and they gave me them."
Conte's emotional rollercoaster this week has been as exhausting for the fans as it probably has been for him.
He's been up, he's been down and he's worn the expression of a man who perhaps has decided he may have made a mistake in saying 'I do' back in November.
Other than a yellow card for complaining about a challenge on Cristian Romero, Saturday brought content Conte (or should that simply be 'Conte-nt'?).
He did not go to any extremes with his views on the game but simply stated that this was more of what he wanted to see.
He does not regret his midweek words and explained that his style is to mix 'soft' and 'strong' words.
"For sure I am a person that my demands are very high because when you want to be competitive, you want to win, your demands have to be very high to improve players in many aspects," he said.
"Sometimes I use soft words, sometimes I use strong words but with only one target to improve, to improve in many aspects.
"I think this group of players every day show me great commitment but they know this is not enough. We have to continue to improve in many aspects.
"Today I have seen great desire, great compactness, great will to fight together in every zone of the pitch. This has to be a starting point for us and not only an episodic game."
This has been Tottenham's biggest failing in recent seasons, an ability to turn one win into multiple ones and one clean sheet into a string of them.
This was progress, albeit against an opponent desperate to hand them the initiative whenever possible.
Wing-backs hit their mark
Conte's entire system relies on the ability of his wing-backs to be both wingers and defenders.
They must be the fittest players on the pitch, able to transition from interceptions and tackles in their own half to being among the team's chief creators.
The failure of Tottenham's wing-backs in being able to do the latter has been the biggest struggle for the Italian to deal with in making this his Conte Spurs.
So when that finally ended on Saturday, you could see the relief on his face.
"For the first time I have seen my mark about this system, to create with the wing-back and the other wing back to score," he told football.london.
"This is a mark of my system, my formation. This is the first time. It means the work [we have done] is starting to work."
The performances of Ryan Sessegnon and Matt Doherty was not only significant for Conte's system, it was also the first time we've really seen both players show exactly what they were originally bought for. Both are Tottenham's most natural wing-backs.
Against Manchester City, Sessegnon was mature and tactically disciplined, against Burnley he was safe and unadventurous.
At Leeds, the 21-year-old appeared to cast aside his fears of running at his man - perhaps occasionally down to his hamstring issues of the past - and he just went for it.
The result was something more akin to the Ryan Sessegnon who tore on to the scene with Fulham as a teenage sensation, recording 16 goals and eight assists in the season the Cottagers earned promotion to the Premier League.
The early stages at Elland Road gave a hint of what was to come as he kept pushing the ball towards the touchline before whipping in low crosses.
Then on 10 minutes, Conte's dream wing-back scenario happened.
Harry Winks played a perfectly-weighted pass into the path of the surging Sessegnon. The young wing-back sped towards the Leeds box and picked out the low ball required to meet Doherty's run into the box.
The Irishman smashed the ball into the net, leaving Illan Meslier with no chance, and chalking up his first goal for the club since arriving from Wolves in the summer of 2020.
For Sessegnon, more surging runs followed, including one on to a Kane pass which brought a half-volley that Meslier saved.
He received a yellow card for one late challenge but showed more maturity in not getting another despite having Raphinha to deal with. The despair of his red card in the Europa Conference League defeat at Mura on his first start after returning from injury has clearly left his mark.
There was one loose ball high up the pitch which led to a bizarre Hugo Lloris moment in which the Frenchman did the hard work in getting to the ball first midway in his own half only to cannon it off Stuart Dallas, then trying to rugby tackle him only for Ben Davies to bail him out with a sliding block in the box.
Sessegnon had also run back to cover on the line. Conte has high hopes for the young wide man and showed faith in starting him again despite Sergio Reguilon's growing fitness following his Covid-enforced absence.
The Italian had told football.london in the week that Sessegnon can become an important player for Spurs and England, but only if he believes in himself.
This was a performance that showed exactly what he can do when he backs himself to succeed.
On the other flank, a wing-back almost a decade older was showing what he can contribute.
Doherty's goal displayed what he used to be so good at for Wolves, being a potent threat at the back post when the ball is launched in from the left.
The 30-year-old Irishman has had a touch of misfortune, a wing-back signed as a right-back, then having his old manager join up with him again only to not play him in the role that made him, before Conte finally arrived and did.
However, on the other side of the coin, when Doherty has had his chances in the role he hasn't particularly taken them, other than a cameo role in the recent comeback against Leicester.
Perhaps he had trained so long in trying to be a full-back again that he forgot what made him such a good wing-back. In his two seasons in the Premier League with Wolves, he was second only to Trent Alexander-Arnold in chances created by right-sided defenders.
He has had little moments since joining Spurs, the final game of last season at Leicester in particular, but this was the first game in which Doherty really looked like he relished what he was doing.
In particular, he formed a very effective partnership with Dejan Kulusevski, linking up and supplying an assist for the Swede's second goal in three matches.
The Dubliner also fired in a low cross which Sessegnon was just inches away from accepting as a returned favour for the opening goal.
Last season Doherty appeared at times to be striking up a partnership with Gareth Bale when Jose Mourinho would play them together in cup matches and the early signs of his link-up with Kulusevski look very promising.
Now for Doherty, like Spurs, it is all about consistency. He has the attacking ability and end product to consign Emerson Royal to the bench role.
The Brazilian can struggle when he has to make decisions in the final third, shown by his big squandered one-on-one chance at 3-0 after coming on for Sessegnon. On his Instagram post after the game, perhaps unwisely choosing a photo of that moment, he had to limit the replies due to the unforgiving nature of the responses.
However, on the pitch this was a good day for his team-mate Doherty and his confidence levels.
He will hope that Conte's temptation to rotate his wing-backs for the FA Cup tie on Tuesday can be averted, at least on the right-hand side because he needs to build some momentum now.
The return of Harry Keriksen
When is Harry Kane not Harry Kane? When he becomes so much more - a wonderful amalgamation of himself and Spurs' last playmaker Christian Eriksen.
It was somewhat fitting that on the day the Dane made his remarkable return to competitive football following his cardiac arrest last summer, Kane was doing his best impression of him at Elland Road.
Kane was the best player on the pitch at Elland Road by a long way. He was incredible against Manchester City and while he was relatively quiet at Turf Moor in midweek this was the response everyone needed.
His goal was vintage Kane, a complicated volley made to look simple from a tight angle from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's perfect chipped ball into the box.
Yet it was his passing that really caught the eye. Without a true successor to Eriksen since the Dane's departure just over two years ago, Kane has shouldered the creative responsibility on top of his goalscoring one.
He was always a player who could pick out a good pass but they rarely ended in assists.
That changed last season as he stormed to both the Golden Boot and Playmaker awards in the Premier League.
His playmaker ability is maturing like a fine wine and on Saturday he was spraying the ball around like peak Pirlo.
The 28-year-old set up countless chances for his team-mates with either the final ball or the key one before.
Had he a clone that was on the other end of his passes, he could have ended the day with three or four assists rather than just the one.
That one assist was a special one though, a floated, perfect ball over the top into the path of Son Heung-min, who took it perfectly on his chest and powered it past Meslier.
The ball from Kane more closely resembled a spiralling quarterback throw from his now retired NFL idol Tom Brady than any normal football pass.
It was the goal that saw Kane and Son break the record for the most goal combinations in the Premier League era. They have now set each other up for 37 goals in total, moving clear of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.
The key for Kane going forward will be the balance he strikes between dropping deep to create and also to be in the box to finish off moves, as he has now done 18 times this season. Conte could really do with a cloning device.
At the moment Kane is managing to do both because his fitness is so high. He's worked hard on it, first with Nuno Espirito Santo's staff and now Conte's and the England captain has said he's the fittest he's ever been.
The difference between his displays at the end of matches is like night and day with his performances earlier in the season. It's no coincidence that he scored the late goal against City or provided the late assist at Elland Road.
It's not just in the opposition half either. There were numerous times when he was chasing down the Leeds defenders or tracking players back deep into his own half. That was what really caught Conte's eye.
"Harry's performance today was incredible, with the ball, but I want to underline, without the ball," said the head coach.
"Many times I have seen him run and follow the defenders to tackle and win the ball.
"When you have your best player doing this on the pitch it is a fantastic example for the other players. I have seen a great unity and solidity, not only on the football aspect but also the mental aspect.
"If we improve in this aspect we can become a strong team. I want to be the coach of a strong team.
"In the past the characteristic of my teams have always been difficult to play against, not only in the football aspect, but in the spirit and desire. I want my players to be warriors and our opponent has to feel this.
"For this reason sometimes I use soft words, sometimes I go strong with the environment, with the people that work with me. I am demanding to myself a lot. For this reason my demands to the others have to be the same."
The next step
Spurs and Conte need to keep meeting his demands because somehow the club are still buzzing around those European spots.
Recent defeats and Tottenham's inconsistency only make reading the Premier League table all the more frustrating.
The north London outfit sit seventh in the table and now finally have a positive goal difference of three.
They lie five points behind fourth-placed Manchester United but with two games in hand. Only Arsenal would sit higher of the fourth-place chasers if they were to win their games in hand.
The problem of course is that games in hand does not mean points in hand and Spurs have proved that this week with their defeat in their rescheduled match at Burnley.
That loss and the two even more disappointing displays at home against Wolves and Southampton can only bring pain when Spurs fans and Conte look at that table and know those nine points would currently have them in third place.
That's where Conte wants to be operating. Not fighting for the fourth place scraps but pushing higher and he knows that right now this Spurs team is not ready for that.
"My words [in midweek] were very clear, very clear, because I repeat I am a coach that for me is not enough to play the game and to enjoy football, to come back in England, to enjoy playing in the best league in the world, I am a coach who wants to enjoy football but at the same time create something important to be competitive, to fight and win," he said.
"I think I want this. My words were very clear and there are many coaches that want only to enjoy, stay in England and play in this league and to enjoy the environment.
"I want to match that, enjoying football and at the same time to feel the possibility to be competitive and to fight with my players.
"I think we're doing a great job in these four months because many, many situations have changed at the club, at the training ground, with the players."
Conte demands more and he wants more. What happens in these final 13 matches of the Premier League season will be the first step in deciding whether Spurs and the Italian start their first full season together.
The second step will then be the summer and what guarantees a club that rarely makes them can give.
If Conte were to walk out mid-season - and there's currently no expectation or real indication that he will - it would probably reflect more on the Italian and a lack of appetite for the fight.
However, if he were to part ways with Spurs in the summer then the narrative would firmly be aimed at chairman Daniel Levy and the club's inability to back the former Inter Milan boss.
That Conte has spoken glowingly this week of Levy - calling him 'Daniel' now - suggests that their talks went well after the Burnley defeat and perhaps, among the flattery coming the Italian's way, some kind of positive indications of the summer ahead were given as this new relationship begins to grow.
Conte will also have his part to play in the funds available. If he can get Tottenham moving consistently in the right direction, then European football will bring in more money.
He admitted this week that even among the recent negative results, as well as the positive ones, he can see elements of his training ground work with the players starting to show on the pitch.
Conte is playing down his side's top four chances and with their current inconsistent form he's absolutely right to, but he will also know that if Spurs were somehow able to find some stability and grab that final spot it would bring a huge surge of money to the transfer coffers this summer.
Of course Conte will also believe that if Tottenham are serious about showing ambition then they would properly finance a squad overhaul this summer regardless of their league position.
There is also the FA Cup. Conte will be desperate to be the man who delivers Spurs the silverware so many others have failed to provide.
The competitive side of him will want to succeed where even the trophy-laden Mourinho could not, although the Portuguese would no doubt point to his sacking just six days before last season's Carabao Cup final.
This Tuesday brings a fourth consecutive trip up north, this time to take on Middlesbrough in the FA Cup fifth round.
Boro, who sit eighth in the Championship, saw off Manchester United in the last round at Old Trafford and at home will have even more confidence in their ability to spring another upset.
Conte will have to decide just how much he can, and wants to, change up his winning side for the match.
Oliver Skipp is closing in on a return to training, with Conte making no effort to hide his pushing of the medical department to get the midfielder back in action, while Rodrigo Bentancur's ankle may also take a little while longer to heal than before this Tuesday's game.
Elsewhere Conte will need to weigh up the need to give minutes to players like Steven Bergwijn, Reguilon, Lucas Moura if he returns from a training ground knock, Davinson Sanchez and also Joe Rodon, with his desire to put out his strongest team to ensure Spurs' progress.
Conte will not want to take Dejan Kulusevski out of the starting line-up either after another exciting performance. The head coach reached across the touchline to give the Swede an actual pat on the back after a piece of hard work in front of him in the dugout.
The 21-year-old is quickly proving to be a real asset for Spurs with another goal to his name and plenty of work in both halves of the pitch.
His confidence is growing with every game and his touch, strength on the ball and close control are those of someone beyond his years and, as Conte suggested, he looks tailor-made for the Premier League.
"Kulusevski is a player who is only 21 years old and in these four games he could have scored in every game," he said on Saturday.
"I think he is showing that he is a fantastic player for the present but also he if he continues in this way he can become a really important player.
"He is strong physically, good technically, he has no fear of the opponent or the tackle. It is a good sign, with Harry and Son, also Lucas Moura and Bergwijn, offensively we are good and I am happy for this."
That the next Premier League match is not until the following Monday evening against Everton means that the Spurs players will have six days to rest after the game at the Riverside. That could also influence Conte's team selection on the night.
Whatever the team, Tottenham need to start building some momentum. Not only for their own sake but for their head coach.
We don't want to see unhappy Conte again. To paraphrase the words of Dr Banner, you wouldn't like him when he's angry.
