Leeds Away – View From In Front Of My Screen
View from in front of my screen
So another lazy Sunday afternoon in front of my screen brings us (dirty)Leeds vs Chelsea. Having been robbed by the referees last week, thanks Mike Dean for the apology(not) I was hoping for a good response and a repeat of our result here at the tail-end of last season, funny enough Taylor was the ref of that game and he sent off a Leeds player.
Chelsea’s starting line up included four of our academy products including Conor Gallagher in for injured Kante.
A loud and raucous Elland Road greeted the teams onto the pitch. Chelsea immediately having a chance as Gallagher fed Sterling who did a little dance through the Leeds defense and shot just wide.
After 8 minutes Koulibaly was given a deserved yellow card for dragging back Aaronson, Leeds were swarming Chelsea and not giving them a chance to settle.
14 minutes in and Cucurella fed a good ball to Sterling who curled it into the far corner, but he was just offside when he received it so we still have to wait for his 1st goal.
Rodrigo then flashed a shot across our goal, the game being played at a frantic pace.
A long ball up field from Mendy saw Mount race away and draw a good save at full stretch from Meslier, once again our corner comes to nothing, maybe one day we will improve on them.
A little battle seems to be developing between Struijk and Loftus-Cheek as the Leeds man goes in late, getting revenge for an earlier challenge from Ruben.
Gallagher seems quite lively, but being swarmed whenever he’s on the ball.
On 32 minutes an absolute howler from Mendy dwelling on the ball saw Aaronson stick the ball in the net 1-0 to Leeds and Elland Road erupts, Chelsea are rattled, and Sterling then gets booked for an innocuous incident on the edge of the area. The ball is played in and Rodrigo beats James to the ball and makes it 2-0, Elland Road is in raptures.
39mins a great ball back into space in the area from Loftus and Curucella shots wide. Have they left their shooting boots at home?
Chelsea huffing and puffing, but once again to no avail.
Half time and Chelsea have some work to do. Can we do what Southampton did last week, or is the mountain to big? No changes at half time except Tuchel now has his baseball cap on.
A promising move on 47mins and Cucurella should put the ball away, but shoots over. Leeds fans not happy as they have a man down. A Leeds corner then leads to a promising break from Sterling 2 vs 2 but Mounts shot is blocked and again a good chance comes to nothing. Gallagher then draws a save from Meslier when he should score, but the flag goes up for offside saving his blushes.
55minutes and a Leeds break, the ball is played in and Loftus Cheek just gets ahead of two Leeds players to put the ball out for a corner.
Leeds players have apparently have run 9km more than Chelsea so far.
On 60mins Leeds bring on Forshaw for Roca. Chelsea playing the ball around nicely but once again can’t find the end product.
63 minutes and Tuchel replace Gallagher with Pulisic and Jorginho with Ziyech, Not too sure about those changes, but a quick break brings a Meslier save from a James shot, the 1st shot on target since the 23minute.
68mins and Chelsea lose the ball in midfield and Harrison makes it 3-0, Dan James is then replaced by Sinisterra.
Elland Road is in Party mode. Chelsea look a bit lost resorting to putting long balls up to the multitude of forwards.
77 minutes and a clash of heads between Pulisic and Struijk gives Tuchel a chance to change Mount for Chillwell, Leeds have now run 10km more than Chelsea.
81 minutes and a good strike from Ziyach strikes a Chelsea player in the box, kinda sums up the match.
Leeds then bring on a bunch of subs.
84 minutes and a moment of stupidity from Koulibaly and he gets his 2nd yellow (I feared this after his early yellow) So will Chillwell get a chance to start a game?
Tuchel then has to bring on Dave for Sterling to shore up the defense.
Leeds 1st clean sheet since November and a 1st victory vs CFC for 21 years.
Manager Jesse Marsch got his tactics spot on and seems to have got Leeds into a well oiled and disciplined outfit, and Super Tommy Tuchel has some work to do.
Onwards and upwards, KTBFH 🙁
Jack Russell
‘Chelsea Supporters Group’ can also be found on Twitter and Facebook
Nice unbiased report – not at all what I expected. Sad to see Koulibaly with his arm round the throats of both Aarenson and Geldhart – both unnecessary and challenges that will get him targeted by pretty much every team now. You forgot to mention that Leeds only played Chelsea once (2012 League Cup) in 16 of the last 21 years so it is not as bad as you suggest. Statistics are useless unless taken in context. Leeds overall record v Chelsea is actually W 40, L 37 but that goes back to the first ever meeting in 1927 so meaningless
I have to agree with the post above. When I started reading this I thought ,,,here we go, slag Leeds fest. But actually it was a straight forward unbiased report which totally mirrored the game. Refreshing and surprising change from the usual Chelsea drivel I read. Well done