Leeds United's 2021/22 campaign has had two long-running subplots: injuries and young players.
One is a by-product of the other; Leeds' scarcely-believable injury list has made way for no fewer than eight teenagers to make their Premier League debuts this season under Marcelo Bielsa - a divisional record.
Few teams would lose two players in the same minute amidst an already crippling injury crisis to facilitate that record, but that is exactly what happened at the London Stadium on Sunday.
Adam Forshaw and Junior Firpo's almost simultaneous withdrawal with 'muscular' problems meant Lewis Bate first, and Leo Hjelde second, became the seventh and eighth teenagers to make their Premier League bows for the Whites this season.
They followed Crysencio Summerville, Charlie Cresswell, Joe Gelhardt, Stuart McKinstry, Cody Drameh and Sam Greenwood in achieving this particular career feat.
While it reflects the severity of Leeds' injury situation, it also demonstrates the faith Marcelo Bielsa has in his young group.
No manager begins a Premier League season with fewer than 20 recognised senior players if he does not believe the teenagers next in line to step up are incapable.
This season, they have - to a man - proven Bielsa right, even if this is not how each envisaged their pathway to Premier League football.
Crysencio Summerville is one of Leeds' four wide options, alongside Raphinha, Daniel James and Jack Harrison.
Charlie Cresswell man-marked Michail Antonio on his Premier League debut to an acceptable degree, while Joe Gelhardt has contributed to more goals per 90 than any other teenager across Europe's top five leagues, including penalties won.
Cody Drameh has been entrusted from the start at the height of Leeds' injury troubles, while Hjelde and Bate were ushered from the bench without haste at the London Stadium despite alternative options.
It does make Drameh's decision to 'experiment outside of the club', as Bielsa put it, a tad perplexing when the bigger picture is considered.
There have been opportunities this season and there will be more to come, but it appears the temptation of regular football week-in, week-out in the Championship was too good to turn down.
While the full story is yet to be revealed with regards to Drameh's loan exit, there remains a confusing element in the decision-making, at least from an external perspective.
The player's choicr to leave may not have been entirely his own, but Bielsa made clear his intention was to keep Drameh at the club to complete his development cycle.
Nevertheless, his contribution this season is a small part in the club's and Premier League history, regardless of what the future holds.
Bate and Hjelde's performances at the London Stadium in consecutive weeks were also reasons for optimism.
The teenage duo made their competitive debuts for the club in the FA Cup and their Premier League bows yesterday. Neither looked out of place, or off the pace with their senior teammates, which is surely a reflection of the work lead development coach Mark Jackson and his U23s staff have done in the short period of time since Hjelde and Bate joined the club in the summer.
Instilling Bielsa's philosophy of playing in the two players has made for as seamless a transition as possible between U23 and first-team affairs. The same can be said for the six other teenage debutants.
On the recruitment side of things, Victor Orta's hypothesis of buying promising youth players, selling Leeds United U23s as a finishing school before eventual first-team involvement, is paying dividends.
For a large portion of the game yesterday, Lewis Bate, Illan Meslier, Leo Hjelde and Pascal Struijk were on the field together, going toe-to-toe with the team placed fourth in the Premier League.
Signed from Chelsea, Lorient, Celtic and AFC Ajax respectively, Orta has made good on his promise to this quartet that first-team chances would be forthcoming if the players in question were willing to display patience.
Youth development is a gradual process and while external factors such as injuries have accelerated some players' accession to the first-team, Leeds are certainly doing something right in their recruitment and coaching departments when a squad bulked out by teenagers can be nine points clear of the drop with games in hand.
