Leeds United’s Premier League season is just 14 games old, but it’s certainly been action-packed so far. There’s been moments that will live long in the memory for the right reasons, with wins over Chelsea and Liverpool being undoubted highlights of the campaign so far, but fans have had their fair share of misery and frustration, too.
United’s season could go either way when they return to action after Christmas, but they’ll have high hopes of building on their current position of 15th and moving up the table. Here’s a look at some of the moments that have defined Leeds’ chaotic season so far.
Blues blown away
Leeds turned on the style to mark a gorgeous August Sunday with their most impressive performance of Marsch’s reign. The Whites had started the season well with four points coming over the opening two weekends, but no one was prepared for the display they produced against Thomas Tuchel’s side as they swept the floor with the Champions League hopefuls.
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Chelsea were already on the ropes and struggling to deal with Leeds’ dogged press and intensity by the time Brenden Aaronson opened the scoring, stealing the ball off Edouard Mendy and poking the ball into the empty net. Elland Road was already rocking but the stadium erupted when Rodrigo glanced home Jack Harrison’s free-kick a few minutes later.
Rodrigo returned the favour in the second half, setting up Harrison for Leeds’ third and Chelsea’s day was summed up with Kalidou Koulibaly saw red late in the game. Tuchel lost his job a few weeks later and the loss to Leeds almost certainly played a part in that decision.
Arsenal agony
Leeds were six games without a win following their 1-0 home defeat to Arsenal, but they were applauded off the Elland Road turf after a gutsy and confident performance against the league leaders. Anyone who watched that game will acknowledge that Leeds should probably have won that one, and they certainly carved out enough chances to.
However, Leeds just couldn’t find the back of the net on the day, managing 16 shots to Arsenal’s nine but only forcing Aaron Ramsdale into four saves. A fair chunk of those chances fell to Patrick Bamford in the second half and despite doing most things right, he lacked that cutting edge.
He missed the target from the penalty spot, too, and that game seemed to kill his confidence moving forward
King Power anger
Just a few days after being clapped off against the Gunners, Leeds were booed at half-time and full-time as they slumped to defeat against bottom-of-the-table Leicester City. Marsch made plenty of changes and they backfired as Leicester ran out comfortable victors to extend Leeds’ winless run to seven games.
Marsch’s decision to head straight down the tunnel at full-time wasn’t a popular one with fans and at the time it seemed as though the American’s job was starting to look at risk.
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Summerville nights
It’s fair to say the mood was low as Leeds approached the Saturday night game at Anfield, having failed to pick up maximum points in each of their previous eight games. As such, no one was expecting what followed as Leeds inflicted Liverpool’s first home league defeat in front of fans since 2017.
Rodrigo gave Leeds a surprise early lead, capitalising on a defensive mix-up between Joe Gomez and Alisson, before Mo Salah equalised a few minutes later. However, despite peppering the goal, Liverpool couldn’t find another way through Illan Meslier with the Frenchman in inspired form on Merseyside.
And, as the clock ticked down, Crysencio Summerville produced a moment to remember, poking home the winner to send the away end at Anfield wild. The youngster repeated the feat a week later against Bournemouth on what was another chaotic night, this time at Elland Road.
North London carnage
Having seen off Liverpool and Bournemouth, the Whites travelled to Tottenham last Saturday with no fear and that told in their performance. Leeds took the lead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on three separate occasions with goals coming from Summerville and Rodrigo once more.
The Whites couldn’t hold onto that advantage, though, and eventually succumbed to a 4-3 loss in an outing that underlined a number of issues for the Whites. Marsch’s side quite simply collapsed defensively, while they also continued their worrying habit of throwing away leads.
As such, the head coach knows he has work to do over the World Cup break.
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