Subs not used: Klaesson, Hjelde, Cresswell, Greenwood, Shackleton, Gray.
Leeds started with yet another experimental line up featuring a back four consisting entirely of centre backs.
It was a one sided game from the opening whistle and we spent the first 20 minutes under relentless pressure from Chelsea, who also scored an early goal. Dan James then got himself sent off for a crazy challenge on Mateo Kovacic, so we were down to 10 men for the second game in a row, and it means that yet another of our first team regulars will be unavailable for this season’s remaining games.
And then, as if to demonstrate that without bad luck we’d have no luck at all, Jack Harrison had to leave the field with an injury 10 minutes before half time and was replaced by Junio Firpo. We spent most of the rest of the game chasing shadows and when Chelsea doubled their lead in the 55th minute it was already game over.
But things continued to go from bad to worse for Leeds when Raphinha also went down injured and was replaced by Joe Gelhardt in the 78th minute. Chelsea scored their third goal a few minutes from the end.
Championship football next season now seems like a certainty….
Subs not used: Klaesson, Hjelde, Cresswell, Greenwood, Shackleton, Gray.
This game went as badly as it’s possible to get for Leeds United and makes relegation even more likely.
Stuart Dallas underwent surgery last week and will be out for a lengthy period, meaning that we had to start our first Premier League match without him since winning promotion in 2020. Liam Cooper still hasn’t recovered from his recent knock and also missed out.
Arsenal took an early lead thanks to a defensive howler from Illan Meslier, who mis-controlled a routine back pass and allowed Eddie Nketiah to poke the ball into the net from close range. Nketiah (a player who’s out of contract at the end of the season and was open to offers during the January transfer window) scored an excellent second goal five minutes later and it already looked like game over for Leeds….
Less than 10 minutes later Luke Ayling (playing his 500th professional game) was sent off for a really reckless challenge, which means we’ll have to play our last three games without another of our first team regulars.
After that it was all Arsenal, but some dogged defending from Leeds kept them at bay. Lewis Bate also impressed after replacing Mateusz Klich at half time. It took Leeds until the 65th minute to mount a serious challenge on goal, which resulted in our first corner, from which we scored with our first shot on target - a great finish from Diego Llorente at the far post.
But it wasn’t enough….
We’re now in the bottom three and it’s difficult to believe we can climb out of it. After this week’s fixtures Everton are a point above us with a game in hand and Burnley are level on points but with a much better goal difference. Their remaining games are also easier than ours and they don’t have to play them with the kind of depleted squad that we’ve got available. It would take a miracle for us to stay up….
Subs not used: Klaesson, Llorente, Bate, Cresswell, Shackleton.
Leeds had to make a last minute change to the starting line up when Liam Cooper was injured during the pre-match warm up - although I’m not sure how much difference it made. Nobody expected us to get anything from this fixture.
Although the gulf in class between us and Citeh is immense, we did manage to keep them reasonably quiet for much of the game, while also playing some decent football ourselves. The scoreline was a bit harsh on us, but they always had the quality to punish our mistakes and were clinical with their finishing when it mattered.
Leeds almost got on the scoresheet early on when Rodrigo broke forward and could have played in Raphinha, who would have been clean through, but he held on to the ball too long and was eventually dispossessed….
Man City’s first goal came from a poorly defended set piece, but apart from that they didn’t really threaten in the first half. However, losing Stuart Dallas to injury just before half time was a big blow for us.
We were still in the game until City scored their second a few minutes after the re-start (also from a set piece). We tried to rally, but left ourselves open at the back, making it easier for City to score their third and fourth goals on the break.
As usual Elland Road was full and it was amazing to hear the whole ground singing “we all love Leeds” for the last 15 minutes, appreciating the fact that the team never gave up even though it was a losing battle from the start.
Meanwhile Burnley won their third game in a row and moved ahead of us on goal difference. Everton also won and are now two points behind us with a game in hand.
Prior to this season’s final day fixtures Everton had already won their game in hand, making them safe from relegation. Burnley drew their game in hand and climbed above us on goal difference, meaning that in order to survive in the Premier League we had to get more points from this game than they did from their home game against Newcastle, which wasn’t very likely….
Brentford looked like they were in danger of being sucked into the relegation zone half way through the season but - unlike Leeds - invested wisely in the January transfer window and as a result have managed to finish in mid-table. They’ve got a settled side that’s been on a good run recently and were definitely favourites to win against Leeds, so I’d pretty much given up hope that we would somehow manage to stay up.
As it turned out, Patrick Bamford didn’t make it back into the matchday squad as (after testing positive for Covid), but Tyler Roberts made a surprise return to the bench.
The Leeds players made a very nervous start to the game, which started off pretty uneventfully with neither side really threatening until the 20th minute, when we thought Joe Gelhardt had scored, but VAR ruled that he was marginally offside….
Brentford created a few chances before the break but we managed to get to half time without conceding and the good news from Turf Moor was that Newcastle were one up. Things looked even better when Raphinha was brought down in the Brentford box and scored from the spot in the 56th minute, and soon after that Newcastle got another goal. But then Burnley pulled a goal back and Brentford equalised, which ensured that the last few minutes of the game were tense as fuck….
However, events immediately swung back in our favour when Kristoffer Ajer had to leave the field with a serious injury after Brentford had already made all three substitutions and shortly after that Brentford’s scorer Sergi Canos was sent off, reducing them to 9 men. Not surprisingly, Leeds had most of the possession for the remainder of the game and eventually got a last gasp winner to secure our Premier League status.
When I eventually have my first heart attack it will probably be during a Leeds United game and this is probably the closest I’ve come to date. Supporting Leeds is never boring, so it will be interesting to see what happens next….
Subs not used: Klaesson, Bate, Hjelde, Cresswell, Kenneh, Gray.
This was our last home game of the season and probably the last time there’ll be Premier League football at Elland Road for at least a year. Before kick off some legends from the Leeds United teams that won the league in 1992 and the FA Cup in 1972 appeared on the pitch and received a standing ovation from the crowd. The current squad’s achievements this season are somewhat more depressing - Leeds set a new Premier League record for yellow cards and we’ve only won four home games - the lowest total in the entire history of the club. We’re also neck and neck with Norwich City in the competition to end the season with the most goals conceded, and look like we’re about to join them (and Watford) on the journey back to the Championship….
Our starting line up looked depressingly weak compared with Brighton’s - and their bench was also massively more experienced than ours. Rumours that Patrick Bamford was going to be available proved to be false. Nevertheless, this was a slight improvement on our terrible performances of late. We started off on the front foot and should have scored an early goal from a corner, but unfortunately Liam Cooper got in the way of Joe Gelhardt’s goal-bound shot.
Brighton gradually took control of the game and created several decent chances in the first half apart from the one that led to Danny Welbeck’s goal.
The Leeds players tried hard, but although we’ve been a little more robust defensively since Jesse Marsch took over from Marcelo Bielsa, when it comes to getting the ball forward, it looks like nobody knows what to do anymore. Marsch was touted as the right guy to build on the foundations that Bielsa built, but based on what we’ve seen over the last few weeks, everything his predecessor taught the players about passing and movement seems to have been erased from their collective memory.
A few moments of individual brilliance gave us hope - Mateusz Klich almost equalised just before half time but was thwarted by an excellent save from the Brighton keeper, who also kept out a fantastic strike from Raphinha midway through the second half. We had more of the ball after the break but it looked like we’d get nothing from the game until the third minute of added time, when a great bit of skill from Gelhardt took him past two Brighton defenders, after which he sent in a perfect cross for Pascal Struijk to head in at the far post. How on earth Bielsa kept overlooking Gelhardt in favour of Tyler Roberts is beyond me….
The late equaliser lifted us out of the bottom three, but even if we win our final game next week we can only finish with a maximum of 38 points. Everton and Burnley have two games left and both have a much better goal difference than us. Everton can potentially get 42 points and will definitely finish above us if they win either of their remaining games. Burnley can potentially get 40 points, and a win and a draw will guarantee safety for them. So we need both of our relegation rivals to slip up in order to stand any chance of survival.
