The star made his first appearance of the season for Tottenham in the 1-1 draw vs. Leeds United.
Tottenham Hotspur dropped two valuable points in the fight to avoid relegation from the Premier League on Monday evening. They drew 1-1 with Leeds United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Mathys Tel being the centre of the spotlight.
Mathys Tel opened the scoring with a beautiful goal, before he conceded a penalty in a bizarre fashion for Leeds United to make it 1-1 via Dominic Calvert-Lewin from the spot. In the end, Spurs were indebted to a spectacular fingertip reaction save from Antonin Kinsky off Sean Longstaff’s left-footed shot deep into injury-time to preserve the point.
Tottenham fans and Roberto De Zerbi also felt they should have had a penalty even deeper into injury time when substitute James Maddison went down in the box under the challenge of Lukas Nmecha. The Leeds United striker got the faintest of touches on the ball before he tripped James Maddison, for which the referee awarded no penalty, and the VAR complied.
Roberto De Zerbi speaks on James Maddison’s return from injury vs. Leeds United
James Maddison suffered a partial tear of his anterior cruciate ligament last May in Spurs’ 3-1 win over Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League before a full rupture occurred in a pre-season friendly with Newcastle United at the start of August. He had featured on the bench in each of Spurs’ last three games without being called upon by the gaffer.
Roberto De Zerbi was unsure over the playmaker’s chances of featuring against Leeds United, but with Tottenham chasing a winner, he decided to bring him on in the 85th minute. Maddison made his first appearance of the season and understandably looked rusty. Yet, he almost produced the decisive moment deep into stoppage time by winning the penalty, only for referee Jarred Gillett to deny one to the home side.
When asked what Maddison’s return means to his side, De Zerbi responded in his press conference (h/t Football London):
“Great news for us. He is a different player as a quality, as a guy, and he will be I hope crucial for us. Yesterday I spoke with him about his physical condition and about how many minutes he could play. He played more than what he said yesterday. We are happy for him, but I think we are in the right way.”
Maddison’s return gives hope for Tottenham
Tottenham will certainly have hoped to get more from their encounter against Daniel Farke’s men. However, a point earned is always better than nothing, and De Zerbi has to take positives from this game and head to Chelsea next week.
Well, it was not all doom and gloom for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium faithful on the night, as they welcomed Maddison back to action following a serious knee injury. His return was marked with a standing ovation from the home fans, who have been desperately waiting for their star playmaker to return on the pitch for almost a month now.
The England international’s cameo against Leeds will come as a big boost to De Zerbi ahead of the final two games of the campaign. What will be an even bigger positive than that, though, is the fact that Maddison got more minutes in his legs than he was initially preparing for. And he came off the pitch at full-time unscathed. Having clocked 24 minutes in his first appearance of the campaign, the Coventry-born star could be expected to offer more minutes when Spurs take on Chelsea in a heated encounter at Stamford Bridge.