Good Morning. It's Monday 22nd August, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Dominant Leeds destroy Chelsea
Leeds produced a masterclass performance at the weekend to destroy Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea 3-0, the biggest loss during his Blues tenure. A sell-out crowd of 36,372 witnessed a new dawn at Elland Road, from a Leeds squad who refused to be intimidated by their bigger, West London counterparts.
Both teams started brightly, but it was the visitors who had the ball in the back of the net early on, only for Sterling's effort to be ruled out by the linesman's flag. Leeds were more than holding their own, though during the opening stages, their firepower seemed less effective. This all changed on 33 minutes, when Brenden Arronsen robbed Chelsea's keeper (Édouard Mendy) of the ball on his own goal line for the simplest of tap ins. Still shell shocked, Leeds struck again four minutes later. Harrison's well executed free kick was flicked on by Rodrigo, to give the Spaniard his fourth goal in three games (or his seventh in four games, if you count the hat trick he scored against Cagliari in pre-season).
Tuchel's side then ramped up the pressure, desperate to get a goal back before half-time, but the Whites stood firm. A goal from either side could rapidly have changed the dynamics of the game, as Leeds' defence continued to thwart Chelsea after the interval, and it was Leeds who struck again, to kill the game off with twenty minutes still on the clock.
Rodrigo fed James down the left channel; he looked up before picking out the on rushing Rodrigo. This first time shot fell nicely in the path of Harrison, who stabbed the ball home from close range. The icing on the cake came five minutes from time when £33m Blues signing Kalidou Koulibaly was sent off for a second bookable offence; which must have come as a relief for the Senegalese International, having been owned for 85 minutes by Messrs Arronson and James.
Dawn of a new era at Elland Road
Could Leeds fans be witnessing the dawn of a new era at Elland Road? Whilst it's important not to get carried away, we're beginning to witness players statistics dramatically improving, in areas not normally associated with Leeds!
For the first time in years, we're finally seeing set plays paying dividends, both from free kicks, and corners. Headers, too, have dramatically improved. Leeds have gone from bottom (for the last two seasons) to 10th.
Gone are the times, that the players would aimlessly sprint forward at 100 mph, Marsch's team has structure, purpose and more importantly good decision-making.
Rodrigo leads the goalscoring charts, whilst Harrison tops assists in the top flight with three. The squad has been allowed to express themselves, now the shackles of man to man marking has been removed.
Harrison doesn't want to go anywhere
In a recent interview with the Daily Express, Jack Harrison has explained his ambiguous statement he made about his future during Leeds tour of Australia. The 25yo angered many Leeds fans by not rubbishing speculation linking him to a move to St James Park this Summer, but according to Harrison, he was caught off guard. Newcastle have been tracking Harrison for many weeks now, and have just had a second offer rejected from the Leeds hierarchy. According to Harrison...
I knew nothing about it and it threw me off. My answer gave the wrong impression from what I meant. Social media was talking about it and people were like, “What have you said?” But it was nothing. My intention is to be here and work hard for this team. If anything I want to make a greater impact than before and I think this is the best place to do that.
My performances at the start of last season weren’t the best but I think I improved. My goal is to try to make the next England camp in September. If I am to have any chance of the World Cup at all, I will have to make that next squad.
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He'll be begging for Spurs to sign Aaronson and Adams now. 