It turns out that These Things Even Themselves Out over the course of a week, never mind a full season. And not at all for Crystal Palace, which is apparently crucial.

A clumsy, thoughtless but ultimately accidental tread on a Spurs player’s foot is a red card and three-game ban one Saturday, then a four-minute check to come to the opposite conclusion the next.

There were other variables at play – namely the ongoing existentiality of Omar Marmoush and Dominic Solanke – but as reductive as it is, Spurs converted the numerical advantage granted by one of those incidents into victory, and channelled the perceived injustice of the other into defeat.

Jean-Philippe Mateta and Palace probably won’t have viewed this Leeds win as any sort of consolation for the obliteration of their gameplan against Spurs last time out. The Frenchman’s poor challenge on Micky van de Ven’s heel and Jayden Bogle’s ugly step on Mathys Tel’s ankle both came at 0-0 in the first half for teams in indifferent form, and those wildly contrasting decisions produced predictably disparate results.

Spurs eventually broke down ten men at home to win 2-0, then summarily failed to overcome 11 away. That Tel soon succumbed to injury after Bogle’s tackle will be a source of frustration, but no more so than their performance at Elland Road.

If they are relying on the opposition having a player sent off each time, it might not always work. Spurs were otherwise bereft of ideas and inspiration, mustering an entire seven shots.

Solanke, on for the end of the first half and the whole of the second, had none of them. No Spurs player had more touches in the Leeds box than Jan Paul van sodding Hecke.

Conor Gallagher did come close when a loose ball fell to him on the edge of the area, while one particular Mohammed Kudus delivery found itself in an otherwise entirely vacated corridor of uncertainty. But really this was a return to the lacklustre slop which came before their three-game winning run.

Those triumphs over Coventry, Chelsea and Palace remain, for now, anomalies; Spurs are still a largely directionless, brittle work in progress under Roberto De Zerbi – a club whose proudest tradition is losing before an international break to ensure maximal misery.

This was a particular failing on the manager’s part. Perhaps still reeling from the remarkable discovery that midfielders who cost a combined £177.5m might work well together, De Zerbi changed the shape, deployed Mateus Fernandes a little further forward and then watched as the Portuguese executed the riskiest shoulder back to the keeper in Premier League history after four minutes.

With that potential indiscretion waved away it was Leeds who started the strongest and continued as they went on. In the second half especially they were dominant.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin should have scored when played through by Sean Longstaff, but instead created an even better chance Ao Tanaka could not take. Longstaff himself almost scored with a swivelling effort wonderfully saved by Antonin Kinsky. The pressure was pretty much being exerted one way.

Then came the substitutions. Gallagher, Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur were sent on to ensure that any pretence of midfield control was surrendered by Spurs. Leeds introduced Harry Wilson and Noah Okafor in response, and they immediately combined to score the game’s only goal.

A long throw caused havoc. Wilson got a touch. Bentancur poked the ball through to the unmarked Okafor, who finished sublimely. One could not ask for a better example of how a manager can win or lose a game with his bench.

It might have turned out differently if similar tackles were treated with any consistency between weeks. But a really quite miserable Spurs, having benefited immensely from one call going their way, have a fortnight to indulge in some introspection this time.