Chelsea 2-2 Leeds United: Sock it to 'em
Maturity brings temperament in big moments, and Leeds discovered at the turn of the century how hard it is to achieve good things without it. Leeds are discovering, as this season turns towards its final months, just how much of a good thing they've got.
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In New Zealand, Danny Hay was seen as 'the complete modern player'. He didn't become that at Leeds United, but he learned well from seeing what it looked like.
It might just be the sicko in me, the thrilled kid when Carl Shutt, not Eric Cantona, was the hero in Camp Nou in 1992/93. But if Leeds United's season comes down to Joel Piroe's finishing to keep us from finishing in the bottom three, I'll feel that prospect like a bolt of energy.
The first thing to say about this game is that it looked beautiful. Chelsea in blue shirts, blue shorts, white socks. Leeds United in white shirts, white shorts and blue socks. For most of the opening stages I was only struck by how good everything looked.
It was a bit wrong, still. Leeds should by rights be in all-white. Or have a bright yellow away kit, like last season's, for a colourful contrast. When the change comes down to socks, if we want to refer like always to the 1970 FA Cup final, Leeds changed to red socks at Wembley and Chelsea wore yellow socks at Old Trafford. But wrong as blue socks looked, untraditional as it was, it was working for me.
Wrong as it was, untraditional as it was, Jayden Bogle on the right wing also worked for me, in the end. I'm not sure who has uncovered their charmed life, Daniel Farke almost a decade into his senior management career, or Leeds United after 107 years of existence, but we keep coming up all footballs in Yorkshire roses this season. Not only did Leeds get an unexpected point at Chelsea, that was least expected at 2-0 down without a shot on target, but West Ham United conceded a 96th minute equaliser at home — we won't worry about who to — to keep the Peacocks six points clear of danger.
And all this was with Jayden Bogle on the right wing. He was helped by Noah Okafor coming on to relieve the defending, which we can only say worked in so far as Chelsea could have led by many more than two but didn't. The Bogling renaissance of the second half, though, was more than Chelsea could handle.
First, as Chelsea relaxed into their just acquired 2-0 lead, Leeds sensed their chance to control the ball. Ethan Ampadu lofted it towards James Justin, the true right back also aiming forward, and he burst towards the penalty area where he was tackled by Andrey Santos. The ball ran loose and Bogle, running loose after leaving Cole Palmer's attempts at marking him behind on the halfway line, brought it under, went in, and was barged over by Moisés Caicedo. Lukas Nmecha had a great time leathering the penalty.
Equalising took just more than five more minutes and was a lot of good Bogling fun. The Peacocks were still in charge of possession, but nothing went to plan when Justin chipped the ball down the line towards Nmecha. With Bogle running unmarked again from deep, Santos joining Palmer in letting him go, Trevoh Chalobah missed his kick, the ball bounced over Nmecha and Joshua Acheampong, Bogle controlled it — thigh then elbow — then chaos came to the penalty area. While blue shirts and shorts stood around like pins, Bogle's blue socks were everywhere, trying to bring a boot towards the ball. The bright orange goalie came out just as the ball escaped in the direction of Okafor, who tapped into the empty net. It was wonderful stuff.
Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior didn't think so. The video-refs decided that Bogle didn't mean to elbow it and he didn't score it so no handball. And rightly, as those are the rules. Rosenior reckons those aren't the rules, and his players were distracted. "He handballs it, it affects my players in that moment, they think it's a handball, we switch off, we don't clear the ball, they score."
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Playing to the whistle is a football basic but, talented as they are, Chelsea generally seem to struggle with some basic areas of professional football. At times I wonder if they're candidates to replicate Leeds United of the David O'Leary and Peter Ridsdale era. Five red cards this season are another symptom, and even at a goal up their tempers were rising in this game. At one point their captain Enzo Fernández was trying to start on Ethan Ampadu, who was merely asking him to leave Joe Rodon be, after our defender had been pointlessly barged into the hoardings by Estêvão.
The average age of Chelsea's starting eleven was under 24, and they're being managed by 41-year-old Liam Rosenior, whose behaviour around his new players suggests he wants to be a friend first, a boss second (and probably an entertainer third). The overarching lack of comprehensible plan at Stamford Bridge over the last three years has themes in common with Elland Road circa 2001, when the policy was spending millions on the bestest, youngest players around, making them all instantly, wildly richer than they ever dreamed, then letting them all run wild. That, friends, had consequences.
The Stamford Bridge spending spree of the last few seasons has reminiscent logic. Since the end of Todd Boehly's first season as chairman, their only player older than 30 has been Thiago Silva, who played a year aged 38. Last season no player older than then 26-year-old Marc Cucurella wore their shirt. This season he's a year older, and Robert Sánchez and Tosin Adarabioyo are 28, but the squad is leaning on fourteen players under 23.
And they don't know how to play to the whistle, or how to hold onto a 2-0 lead at home, or how to tap a winning goal into an open net in stoppage time. Or how to keep their discipline: they lead the Premier League for red cards, are second for yellows.
Only five teams have fewer yellow cards than Leeds, meanwhile, who had an average age of over 27 at Stamford Bridge. And it's been feeling increasingly significant to me that the only player sent off in anger during Daniel Farke's entire time in charge has been Illan Meslier, for pushing Preston's infamously pushable Milutin Osmajic. Joe Rodon had seen two yellows at Hull before that, but since then, Leeds have ended with eleven every time.
At the same time, they've shown the sort of courage and determination and willing to fight for each other that can bring them back from 2-0 down against Chelsea, and Manchester City, and Liverpool, all underpinned by understanding that the biggest help they can be to each other is on the pitch. Leeds have a whole team of the 1989/90 vintage Vinnie Jones, who was informed by Gordon Strachan that he'd be no help to his teammates if he was serving suspensions all the time, then played the best football of his career. This season's Spurs, by comparison, were being led towards the bottom of the table by captain Cristian Romero until he picked up his second red card of the season and a four match ban.
To be one of only five teams without a red card this season is a notable effort when you consider two of the others are Arsenal and Manchester City. It's an indicator of a good team (even allowing for Brighton and Fulham as the remaining two). For all the arguments about Daniel Farke's line-ups and tactics and substitutions, this aspect of his management goes under-remarked: that he's built a team with "fire in the heart", as he puts it, "but cool in the head".
That this is built through the players' commitment to each other then enables mad tactics like the ones he tried to use against Chelsea. Recent weeks have made a feature of defensive teamsheets producing excellent attacking football, but Stamford Bridge looked like a step too far: Lukas Nmecha, Brenden Aaronson, two defensive midfielders and six defenders.
What Farke was trying to do was play right-back Jayden Bogle as an attacking right-winger and no.10. He wanted to surprise Chelsea with something unexpected, he said afterwards, and, "I wanted also to inspire my team today with this decision."
That aim of inspiring the team reminded me of a story from Terry Yorath's autobiography, about Jack Charlton asking Don Revie to read the team out again. "Who's left back?" asked Charlton. "Taff," said Revie — Terry Yorath. "Fucking Taff?" replied Charlton, "Left-back?" Not exactly words to inspire young Yorath, who was sitting there listening to all this. But those words did make him determined to show Big Jack his worth.
Times have moved on and dressing rooms are different places now, so I can imagine Farke announcing to the team that Jayden Bogle will be playing right-wing at Chelsea and the players laughing, joking, and then deciding that together they will all make Bogle look like Garrincha. It's a smart psychological twist: instead of worrying about Chelsea, they went on the pitch determined to get the best out of Bogle.
A touch more worrying about Chelsea might have been helpful, as it turned out. Or worrying about Cole Palmer, specifically. Somehow, out of six defenders and two defensive midfielders, Leeds couldn't find anyone to shadow him until after he'd made a goal. At that point Jaka Bijol started following him about, and in a different world Bogle might have been asked before the match to switch off his Stanley Matthews videos and just man-mark Chelsea's floating playmaker.
It gives me no pleasure to relay that Palmer and Joao Pedro worked beautifully together for the opening goal. They probably didn't even need Joe Rodon to start the move for them by passing straight to Acheampong. Chelsea worked the ball through a couple of passes while Joao Pedro loitered offside behind Sebastiaan Bornauw and James Justin, hardly even looking at the game. Until, from the corner of his eye, he saw the ball being passed to Palmer in the centre of the pitch. Now Joao Pedro was interested, and running, using Jaka Bijol to keep himself onside and confident that the pass, when it came and it did come, would be perfect to score with.
Maybe that's why Bijol was upset with Joao Pedro and pushed him over in the second half for a penalty Palmer blasted in. I don't know what else to say about this. Wolves' Yerson Mosquera did exactly the same thing to exactly the same player for exactly the same result on Saturday. It can't be a coincidence, but why did it happen?
It's easier to explain why Cole Palmer missed an incredible chance to win the game in stoppage time. Caicedo crossed, the ball got to the back post, and from three yards out in the centre of an empty net with the ball bouncing onto the side of his foot, Palmer put the ball somewhere very avant garde. Then he stood, stunned in the net where the ball should have been, breathing deeply, and seemed to be trying to anchor himself again by looking around at the big screens for a replay of what he'd just done.
Why didn't he score? Well, he's a 23 year old millionaire with a trademarked goal celebration who had been trotting around after scoring his penalty and let Bogle dominate his area of the pitch until Leeds were level again, suddenly being asked to wake up and win it. He's a brilliant footballer, but this was too much to ask of him.
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Maturity brings temperament in big moments, and Leeds discovered at the turn of the century how hard it is to achieve good things without it. Leeds are discovering, as this season turns towards its final months, just how much of a good thing they've got. ⭑彡
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