Leeds United U23s have been relegated from Premier League 2. Having played all of their matches, the young Whites could only watch and hope Chelsea U23s were unable to beat Tottenham.
It looked for 80 minutes as though Tottenham would do enough to help Leeds stay in the top flight and their opener on the hour mark would’ve given hope to those watching at Thorp Arch. But a dramatic late comeback at Cobham means that Leeds’ youth side will drop back into the division they won last season. Goals from Dion Rankine in the 82nd minute and Lewis Hall in the 88th completed the comeback for Chelsea as they made sure they would be competing at the top level of youth football again next season.
It has been an unfortunate campaign for Andy Taylor’s side, previously under the helm of Mark Jackson before he was promoted to the first team. The unrelenting injuries to first-team players has meant that the key players from the U23s squad have had to step up into the first-team squad in almost every Premier League game.
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When combined with the inclusion of some of Chelsea’s first-team players on Sunday afternoon, it was also going to be a tough ask for Taylor and his young players. Trevoh Chalobah and Malang Sarr – who have played 25 Premier League games between them this season – were selected in the Chelsea defence just to show how important the game was for the Blues.
That importance was further highlighted by some of the big names who were in attendance at Cobham. Thomas Tuchel, Petr Cech, John Terry and Claude Makelele as well as the majority of the first-team players at the club were watching on, according to Chelsea Youth on Twitter.
After their success last term, Leeds will be confident of bouncing back to Premier League 2 next season, especially if they have their best players available more often. Whites fans will be very much hoping they are the only Leeds team to be relegated this season, after the first team dropped into the bottom three after their loss at Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.
