– The battle of the teams with woeful winless runs ended with Leicester City snapping their seven-game English Premier League losing run with a 2-1 away triumph which extended Tottenham Hotspur’s own winless sequence to seven matches on Jan 26.
The result helped Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side move out of the relegation spots for the first time since Christmas, as they sit 17th on 17 points.
Spurs are just two places above them in 15th on 24 points, as pressure continues to mount on manager Ange Postecoglou. Tottenham are on their longest winless run in the top-flight since a nine-match spell in 2008.
Spurs’ five points from their last 11 matches is the league’s second-worst record, after bottom-placed Southampton.
Yet, it all started so promisingly for the home side at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Spurs’ first big chance came in the 17th minute when Lucas Bergvall picked out Son Heung-min, who cut inside and shot from outside the box, but Leicester goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk pushed it out for a corner.
Tottenham continued to threatened and on 31 minutes, Stolarczyk punched Dejan Kulusevski’s free kick only as far as Son, whose cross surprised the goalkeeper and hit the frame of the goal.
Two minutes later, Spurs were ahead.
Richarlison, who has endured an injury-plagued season, scored for the second game running after sneaking in between James Justin and Wout Faes and heading in a lovely cross from Pedro Porro.
Since he made his debut in February 2023, no defender has registered more Premier League goal involvements than the 25-year-old Spanish right-back, who has a combined 23 goals and assists.
He is level with Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold – the standard-bearer for attacking fullbacks in the league.
Porro looked the best player on the pitch for a dominant Tottenham team before the break, a regular menace in attack who also won four of his duels and regained possession seven times.
But his second-half showing offered a microcosm of Spurs’ season.
The other side of Porro’s game was on display in the opening minute of the second period, as he was caught out of position too high up the pitch as the Foxes attacked down his flank.
Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s low cross evaded goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky but not Jamie Vardy, who scored his 10th league goal in 18 matches against Spurs.
Before Spurs could recover from that goal, Leicester were ahead.
On 50 minutes, Porro’s sloppy pass saw Foxes win possession and a few passes later, Bilal El Khannouss was driving towards goal, and with centre-backs Radu Dragusin and Ben Davies failing to sufficiently close him down, he curled a shot past Kinsky from outside the box.
It was the first time Spurs had conceded two goals in the opening five minutes of a second half in the Premier League since November 1997 against Liverpool.
That woke Spurs up though, with a combination of Faes and Stolarczyk needed to deny Kulusevski scoring from a routine long ball out from the back, before Porro’s free kick deflected off Vardy’s head and off the crossbar.
On 66 minutes, Porro’s lovely feet saw him wriggle into the box but instead of trying to tee up better-placed teammates, he blasted a shot from a tight angle which did not test Stolarczyk.