On paper this looked by far the most difficult of our opening run of fixtures, but it always looked like we wanted the points more than our illustrious visitors, and in the end we stormed to a deserved victory over Chelsea.
There was just one change to the Leeds starting line-up for this game, with Patrick Bamford’s latest injury ruling him out, though we’re told that he was pretty close to making it for this game, so presumably he will be back at Brighton next week. Dan James took his place, but to play in his favoured position on the wing, which Rodrigo was moved forward to the striker’s position.
There was one piece of controversy before the game had even kicked off, as Tomas Tuchel was allowed to take his place in the visitors’ dugout despite getting a red card for his touchline antics last week. Not that this piece of good fortune would stop him moaning, with one bizarre excuse for their poor performance being that their coaching staff had to come to Leeds by bus after their arrangements to fly to Leeds fell through.
The charming Chelsea boss also felt that the game would have been very different if they had taken one of the excellent chances they created early on. After five minutes Kristensen lost the ball going forward and it was played to Sterling in the gap behind him. The England man cut inside but curled his shot just wide of the far post.
Shortly afterwards he cut inside once again and this time he did curl the ball into the net, but we were saved by the linesman’s flag, with the decision surviving the VAR review. But by then Leeds were starting to enjoy more of the possession, and Aaronson’s surge forward was rudely interrupted by a blatant shirt pull from Koulibaly, rightly earning the Chelsea man his first yellow card. Then our best chance so far ended with Rodrigo pulling his shot beyond the far post.
Yet Chelsea were still looking dangerous on the break, with Meslier doing well to push a Mason Mount shot round the post. But just as I was thinking that for all our possession Chelsea’s attacks were carrying the greater threat, a bizarre mistake from Mendy was to gift Leeds the lead in the 33rd minute.
The Chelsea keeper got a bit too sure of himself as he dribbled the ball along the touchline, resisting the temptation to give it a good old-fashioned welly downfield. That was until he took a poor touch, which allowed Aaronson to nip in and take the ball past him, before tapping it over the line to put Leeds in front.
And four minutes later it was two-nil, as a free kick was delivered into the box and Rodrigo rose to meet it, guiding the ball into the far corner to continue his excellent start to the season. These two goals seemed to knock the stuffing out of Chelsea and Leeds took control of the contest, with Tyler Adams finally looking a worthy successor to Phillips as he covered a lot of ground in the deep midfield role.
The second half continued in much the same vein, though on the hour mark Roca was starting to feel the pace of the game, and he was replaced by Forshaw to keep up the energy levels in our midfield. Having been caught out by making his substitutions too late at Southampton last week, Jesse Marsch wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.
Meanwhile Rodrigo was denied his fifth goal of the season by a despairing block, and at the other end a shot from Connor Gallagher was deflected narrowly wide. But Leeds made the game safe with the third goal on 69 minutes, with Rodrigo’s effort from James’ cross heading wide until Harrison stretched to get his toe to the ball and guide it in. The goal still had to be checked, but VAR confirmed that the Chelsea version of James had played Harrison onside and we were three in front.
With the three points pretty much in the bag Leeds exchanged one winger for another, with Sinisterra coming on for James. Then with ten minutes remaining all three of our goalscorers were withdrawn, with Greenwood, Klich and Gelhardt coming on to replace them. But there was no let-up in our intensity, and the post-match stats would show that Leeds had run a total of 11 kilometres more than Chelsea.
And two incidents in the final ten minutes summed up Chelsea’s afternoon. First a fierce shot from Pulisic was blocked by one of his teammates, who was standing in an offside position. Then as Gelhardt broke through into a threatening position, he was wrestled to the floor by Koulibaly, with the Chelsea man picking up an inevitable second yellow to take the visitor’s down to ten men.
That was the cue for a good number of the visiting fans to opt for a quick getaway, to be greeted by a chant of "is there a fire drill?” from the South Stand. And of course the home fans inside Elland Road were all to happy to stay till the end and roar the team home for a much deserved victory. Already the struggles of last season are starting to seem like a long time ago.
At the end of the weekend we find ourselves in the giddy heights of third place, though only alphabetical order is keeping us above Spurs. This enough to send some of our fans giddy with excitement, especially with the next few games not being all that taxing, though next week at Brighton will be tough after the start they have had.
There will be some tough times and sterner tests over the next nine months, but for now let’s gaze lovingly at the league table and savour these times while they last.