Leeds United 1-0 Everton: Still the Champions again, olé olé
These three precious points are one more gift from the 2025 Champions to themselves and the players getting ready to join in.
For a minute it looked like this wasn't going to work. From kick-off Everton kept the ball and moved it around with speed and purpose that the identikit fodder of the Championship never brought to Elland Road. The Premier League's obnoxious anthem was echoing in every Toffee touch as the Peacocks chased and worried, and the crescendo became a crisis when new star Anton Stach lost his first tackle and went down with his first injury. He hobbled around as the Blues imposed every ounce of their 72 consecutive top-flight seasons on precocious underdogs Leeds. With Stach on the floor, eight upright outfielders from last season plus Gabriel Gudmundsson looked out of their depth and the hot breath of Fabrizio Romano was an ill wind through United's failed revamp.
Then Michael Keane passed an easy ball out of play for a throw-in and that was the end of all that, because everything that makes Everton something to fear — Premier League experience, David Moyes' knowledge, the England goalkeeper — anchored them as securely as six consecutive bottom half seasons. Michael Keane? James Tarkowski? Séamus Coleman coaching from the subs bench? Same old, same old, same old: see you all at the new stadium soon. It's no wonder Dominic Calvert-Lewin wanted a fresh start this summer.
Calvert-Lewin will be part of Leeds United's Premier League refresh, but first, this was a lesson in mood and momentum. Or, because it's 2025, vibes. Or, because Ethan Ampadu was flicking the ball around Everton's forwards with the outside of his boot and passing to Pascal Struijk with his chest, Malibu.
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Leeds United won their last six games of last season, and won their most recent games at Elland Road 6-0 and 4-0, then circled the city centre on an open top bus and still don't look ready to stop. A team that stands still, especially when it's leaping up to the top tier, is supposedly moving backwards. But Leeds weren't standing still on Monday night: they used last season's forward momentum to adapt to new tactics, to overwhelm dreary opponents, to make it easy for new players to get involved. Stach, Gudmundsson and Lucas Perri were the new names here, and the other new players will gain like them from the start the old guard have given them.
It didn't take long after Keane's pass out of play for Leeds to look like they were back on their open top bus again. The first half in particular was so good that, when the half-time whistle blew, Ampadu was swinging his arms in the air towards the Kop, demanding an ovation he knew the team deserved. It must be a powerful feeling, to start a season in the Premier League so well that you're not afraid of demanding applause. The first thing Leeds brought with them into this season was a lack of fear, taking every throw-in and free-kick as quickly as they could to get the ball into play and get playing, imposing themselves, while Everton posed themselves as jittered, frit to restart into the hot Leeds press.
Only a little composure held Leeds back from taking the lead. Joel Piroe was sharp onto a lazy clearance by Tarkowski, but not calm enough to turn away from Jordan Pickford towards more angles: his quick shot was saved, but still, I like Piroe when he shoots quickly. Another strike taken early was deflected wide, after Struijk and Ao Tanaka had turned Everton back on halfway. Struijk almost got his head on a corner and in the subsequent scramble Pickford was pulled into nowhere, and although Leeds couldn't finish, they kept the ball alive and kept attacking for another full minute. The small worry could be felt, about Leeds lacking true excellence in the last six yards. But Everton didn't have an idea between them in their whole attacking half, while much of what Leeds were making looked like destiny for Dominic Calvert-Lewin. They just need him on the pitch.
Instead they got Lukas Nmecha midway through a second half that Everton had more of. There was also Brenden Aaronson, who stayed on Everton sub Jack Grealish's case, Ilia Gruev because Tim Iroegbunam had bent Ampadu's ankle, and Jack Harrison, because Dan James isn't fully fit yet. The game was solved out of these changes and some frustrating initial indecision. Carlos Alcarez slipped under pressure from Gruev, and Nmecha's one-two with Tanaka was shoddy: there'd been a shot on for Tanaka, and the shot Nmecha eventually tried was weak. Then Stach took control on the edge of the area, found Harrison's run into the box, and his cross was dangerous and deflected out; Stach got on the ball again, took a shot, and because that was deflected Tarkowski decided to protect his goalkeeper by thrusting his chest at the ball, arm-first. I didn't fancy Nmecha for the penalty kick — his shot in the build-up didn't fill me with confidence. After watching Pickford pretending he had some relevant info on his water bottle, I loved the power with which Nmecha placed his shot low in the corner beyond the goalie's little arms.
This penalty has since been portrayed as unjust. David Moyes muttered about refereeing standards bringing the Premier League down (I'd argue the last six years of Everton FC haven't helped the product much either). James Tarkowski put on a face of innocence as if he was facing arrest for the crime of having arms. Unhinged Bluenoses trawled footage to construct a case of bias. This all made the result much better, and it was already very good.
It was so good that the Leeds players, collectively, lost their minds for a while. Tanaka was flying into tackles as if determined to give Grealish his set-piece moment, so Sean Longstaff had to come on to impose some order. Even he couldn't prevent Aaronson, after some wonderful skill to keep the ball, falling over and letting Everton attack with it anyway. (It looks like Aaronson will still be, frequently, the funniest player we have — just, well, not right now, Brenden.) Anton Stach, then, had to come into his own, as if he hadn't been all evening. The game's dominant player now moved to the fringes so that, whenever Struijk or Joe Rodon headed away from their goal, he could appear from the edge of the action to take the loose ball away somewhere calm and peaceful. Well, relatively. He couldn't take it out of the stadium. He could sting Pickford's palms with a shot after Harrison and Gudmundsson set him up, and loft a chance over the bar after getting the ball off two Everton players at once on the edge of their box and taking a pass back via Tanaka and Aaronson. Moyes, meanwhile, spent stoppage time pleading with his players to hurry up and take throw-ins, while Michael Keane ended his night with a petulant late foul on Nmecha, the definition of just-because-you're-losing.
Stach is carrying a lot of our hopes into this season, partly because the team has changed so little and fans who love the bright shine of the new might have felt frustrated, at 8pm, that there wasn't more of it. By 10pm we'd been reminded that this is how Leeds United are supposed to do it. Don Revie's side that won promotion to the First Division in 1964 included nine future internationals, three current internationals — Bobby Collins, John Giles and Alan Peacock — and Albert Johanesson, who only lacked a stage. They won their first three top flight games, finished 2nd on goal average and only lost the FA Cup final in extra-time. In 1990, Howard Wilkinson took the fastest route to the top by buying big from the First Division, and only had to add three top class players to finish 4th in the top tier and a couple more to win it. In 2020 Marcelo Bielsa's team had few big names but — Raphinha apart — was better before Victor Orta started adding to it.
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Staying up, each time, has been a consequence of how Leeds went up and not of the summer after promotion. This time around, and only so far, we can give credit to Daniel Farke for the way he's brought the mood at Elland Road around from the grimness with which Sam Allardyce and his kin dragged it down to the Championship, and for building a side that hasn't stopped winning — Wembley aside — that players love being part of (Mateo Joseph aside). Burnley thought they were doing the same thing, coming up behind Leeds with a strong defence ready for the Premier League challenges ahead, but on opening day only one of their back five and keeper had been part of that foundation last season. It was their strongest department, now they're starting again, and conceding three at Spurs.
Leeds United? Clean sheet, one goal, three points. And while we should take care not to get too carried away by stopping Beto from scoring, we should make the most of everything we got from this opening game, which was more than some promoted teams have had from their opening months. Everton looked dire, like a crowd of dogs in a farmer's field doing everything except what their exasperated owner, David Moyes shrugging on the sidelines, wanted. But last season they finished 13th. Whatever about Arsenal next weekend, Leeds can now play without fear against the best of the bottom half, and that's what this season is all about. These three precious points are one more gift from the 2025 Champions to themselves and the players getting ready to join in. ⭑彡
More to Read at Leedsista since last time:
How Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Leeds United just might work ⭑ An experienced Premier League striker who has scored two consecutive seasons in double figures and played and scored for England, who just needs to stay fit and recover the form he showed under Carlo Ancelotti for the next few years to become the prime of his career — and he's free?
Tony Currie, first time: Arsenal vs Leeds United, August 1978 ⭑ Tony Currie was a symbol of the post-Revie transformation of Leeds United from a clinical winning machine to something more relaxed, and much less effective. Nicer hair, taller floodlights, no more trophies. But what Don Revie had drilled into his players, they now drilled into Tony Currie.
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