Over the whole ninety minutes Leeds deserved to get our Premier League campaign off to a winning start, but it took a debatable penalty to finally get the better of a stubborn Everton.

With all the comings and goings during the summer it was difficult to predict what the starting line-up was going to be, not least because a few of last season’s squad had responded to the challenge of the new arrivals and played well in the pre-season games. As it was there were debuts for Perri, Gudmundsson and Stach, but familiar names took the other 8 places on the team sheet.

And on the evidence of the first half, a few of them look quite comfortable in making the step-up to the big league. Our central midfield trio were controlling the game, and the defence made sure that Everton hardly had a sniff whenever they did manage to venture forward. That said, a peep at an Everton forum last night told me their fans don’t think much of their centre forward Beto!

If we were lacking in the first half it was up front, though Everton did at least manage to be fairly disciplined in their defensive play. Our forward trio worked hard, but I thought James wasn’t quite on it, and several of his passes were either short of their target or went straight out of play. Our best chance of the half came when Gnonto’s ball into the area took a deflection and fell kindly for Piroe.

The Dutchman turned in his usual calm manner to set himself up, but this gave Pickford time to get into position behind him to smother the shot. Perhaps the Dutchman will need to speed up a bit, as Premier League goalkeepers and defenders will be that much quicker to react to any danger. Then James was a bit too slow to react when a Stach header came through to him, and put the ball high and wide.

Soon after a Gudmonsson shot was deflected to Tanaka beyond the far post, but no one reacted when Japanese send the ball back across goal. I thought he could have tried a looping header over Pickford towards the far corner. And shortly before the break Gnonto managed to escape from Alcaraz with a clever dummy, but got underneath his shot and sent it over the bar.

Everton probably had a rocket from David Moyes during the break, because they came out looking a bit more determined in the second half, and I thought we might regret not taking any of our chances during the first. But we did produce another when James came down the right and found Gnonto in the centre, but the Italian’s shot on the turn found the side netting.

After that the visitors looked like they were started to take control, and they produced their first couple of decent chances of the evening. Dewsbury-Hall’s trickery on the right got the better of Aaronson, and Perri did well to get down to shot from Alcaraz. And from the resulting corner O’Brien headed over when he escaped from his markers.

On 67 minutes Daniel Farke responded my making his first change, though I was surprised Gnonto was taken off, as he had looked as likely to score as anyone. Nor did I think Aaronson was the obvious choice to replace him, with the other options we had for the wide positions. In the 78th minute a triple change saw James, Piroe and Ampadu replaced, the latter presumably because of a heavy knock he’d taken, as he’d been superb in front of the back four.

On came Gruev, Harrison and Nmecha, as our manager freshened things up to try to stem the Everton tide. And it seemed to be working when Aaronson teed up Tanaka on the edge of the area, but the ball bounced a little bit too high for the Japanese to have a chance of controlling his shot. And just as the game seemed to be heading for a 0-0 draw, finally we got the breakthrough in the 84th minute.

Harrison’s cross came back out to Stach outside the area, and his shot was deflected before being blocked by Tarkowski. The referee view was blocked, but after consulting his assistant he responded to our appeals for handball by pointing to the penalty spot. VAR then had to check it, but as Tarkowski had leant into the shot before it hit him on the arm they couldn’t say it was a clear and obvious error, so the on-field decision stood.

But with Piroe off the field, who was going to take it? I thought for a horrible moment it would be Struijk, but thankfully Nmecha grabbed the ball to do the duty himself. Pickford’s water bottle told him to go to his left, but the penalty was so well placed and fiercely struck he had no chance of keeping the ball out.

Of course we still had to hold out for the win during the remaining time, but Everton hadn’t looked much like scoring in the game so far, so why expect them to do so now?

It certainly made a pleasant change to have a keeper who was confident in coming out to claim crosses whenever the visitors did threaten. If anything Leeds looked more likely to score, as we went forward in search of the second that would clinch the game, rather than sitting back. That could have come with a fierce shot from Stach, but Pickford was right behind it.

Seven minutes injury time was announced, and to see the game out with a bit of Premier League know-how Longstaff was the final change, in place of Tanaka. His brief cameo made him the 14th player to represent bot Leeds and Newcastle in the Premier League.

Despite the tension we got through to the final whistle with no further alarms, to start our return to the Premier League with a much-needed win. Three points were imperative with two difficult fixtures to follow, and with the transfer window still open we need to convince prospective signings they won’t be embroiled in a relegation battle.

Is this win a sign that we are Premier League ready, or was it down to Everton being a bit rubbish? Time will tell, but a few of the other relegation candidates looked satisfyingly poor over the weekend (West Ham, Wolves, Brentford and Burnley) so at the moment I think we’ve got enough to finish outside the dreaded bottom three at the end of the season.

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