Leeds United 2-2 Bournemouth: The details
United have quickly become competitive among the Premier League's middle tier and that is making the games more interesting because they could go either way. Normally you'd offer that to the neutrals, but the novelty of arriviste status is making this fun for Leeds fans, too.
Bournemouth equalised in the 93rd minute at Elland Road and then there was silence, pressure from the need to stay in the Premier League pushing so much air out of the Old Peacock Ground that the cheers of the few Cherries fans in the corner had no wind to carry them. The atmosphere shouldn't turn so suddenly in September, but the goal of May is so clearly sighted that the implications of this goal were immediately apparent: this could cost us.
You don't have to beat Bournemouth to stay in the Premier League but you do need to beat them if that's what you're doing in stoppage time at home. Also, you want your home ground to be a place visiting teams fear and a good win against a good team would have given next week's Spurs more to be afraid of. And you don't want a habit of having results turn against you in the last minutes but that's three points, from Fulham and Bournemouth, gone while the referee was breathing in to blow full time.
Which is a shame for Leeds United because they're playing very, very well, and deserve the results to go with the performances. And it's a risk for Leeds United because we know, specifically from Marcelo Bielsa's last season, that a team that is working so hard to do what it's doing can lose momentum and lose heart when their efforts don't bring rewards. Leeds are working hard right now, typified by Gabriel Gudmundsson fighting to keep the ball inside Bournemouth's byline three times in this match and by the adherence, seen when midfielders are making calming gestures and passing safely back to Pascal Struijk, to Daniel Farke's instructions about attacking with defensive integrity. Strong, committed efforts are being made all over the pitch and Leeds are playing with Bielsa's crucial ingredient, enthusiasm. But that's among the hardest ingredients to maintain when things aren't going your way. Gudmundsson might feel it's easier, one day in December, to just let the ball go for a goal kick if all Leeds will end up with is a late concession and less than they should have. It's human nature, and that's what Leeds have to resist for the next eight months.
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They also need to sweat the details as hard as they sweat, well, the sweating. Both Bournemouth's goals came through carelessness. Yes, for the first one referee Michael Oliver gave a free-kick outside United's box for nothing: but it was the sort of nothing Anton Stach has to learn is a foul in this league. Then Leeds made Antoine Semenyo's free-kick easy for him. One problem with using a 'draught excluder', in this case Brenden Aaronson lying down behind the wall to stop a low shot, is that the taker then knows the wall will jump. Aaronson wasn't long enough to cover the wall's full width and the gap he left behind Stach and Struijk became Semenyo's inviting target. It's harsh to blame Aaronson for not being taller — we've already complained enough about him not being broader-chested — and the organisation of all this is really down to the goalkeeper building a secure enough blockade in front of him.
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The detail of the stoppage time equaliser was all about subs. Ao Tanaka was on in place of Aaronson, but not able to continue his excellent job of keeping the ball and/or harassing players to get it back. Tanaka's dawdling forced him to give a soft foul away. Farke took the chance to waste time with another change, breaking the rule about not making substitutions while defending set-pieces by bringing on Lukas Nmecha. Bournemouth didn't give Leeds time to discuss who was marking who, and as they'd made five changes of their own, that was already a complicated subject. Marcos Senesi rose to meet David Brooks' cross, and it went across goal to substitute Eli Junior Kroupi, who was unmarked and ready to volley in a heartbreaker.
This nitpicky stuff is a shame and, hopefully, unimportant, because the great broad strokes of Leeds United's arrival in the Premier League are excellent. A permanent Arsenal exemption is in place and what happened at Sheffield Wednesday was a different tournament so it doesn't count, but otherwise Leeds have been collecting points while putting on very enjoyable football matches. The run so far might turn out to be rare vintage and suggests mid-table needn't be such a lousy place after all. Dominating leagues, as Leeds did for the last two seasons in the Championship, can be as stultifying as losing every week. United have quickly become competitive among the Premier League's middle tier and that is making the games more interesting because they could go either way.
Normally you'd offer that to the neutrals, but the novelty of arriviste status is making this fun for Leeds fans, too. The game with Bournemouth brimmed with entertainment value. Dominic Calvert-Lewin could have had a goal inside twenty seconds and a hat-trick in twenty minutes; Aaronson had a free header in that time too. Then the visitors roused their fans to old-fashioned chants of 'Boscombe! Boscombe!' by showing their quality, manager Andoni Iraola combining attacking verve inspired by Bielsa with a box of players in front of their goalie to keep things tight. Leeds, though, were reading every move, intercepting every attempt to get into the penalty area. Until the goal.
Bournemouth tried to slow down with their lead but the home crowd was exhorting the home team to go faster. An equaliser came through a detail done well, Sean Longstaff's corner landing on Joe Rodon's head, headed in. In midfield, Tyler Adams tried to break United's grip by posturing like the man he had Jesse Marsch bellowing at him about from the age of sixteen, and came off how he always does when he tries to act tough, looking like a stupid boy. If he'd stayed fit Adams could have kept Leeds up and we'd still be enjoying Sam Allardyce and Karl Robinson's management to this day, but that was because Adams can be a good midfield player, not for the scraps he only wins in his imagination. Ethan Ampadu, Anton Stach and Sean Longstaff in particular were the midfield, in totality, creating big problems for Bournemouth and perhaps for Ao Tanaka, too, whose ascent to Premier League stardom has been delayed by this trio's sureness compared to the gruel of his combination with Ilia Gruev at Arsenal (that time) and perhaps by the Ramazani tax that will come due for his part in Bournemouth's late equaliser here.
As if bossing midfield, taking successful corners and holding impromptu post-goal team talks weren't enough to make Longstaff the first name in next week's team, he put Leeds ahead in the second half. Give it up to Gudmundsson for this one, though. I'm mentioning Bielsa a lot today but his teams used to do this a lot: chase a defender to their own byline, tackle them, and steal the ball away. Gudmundsson had to put a lot into this thievery but when he eventually came away with the ball he gave it to Noah Okafor, who cut inside and shot and that was blocked and the ball fell to Aaronson, and he shot and that was blocked and the ball fell to Longstaff, and he shot and that was perfect, somehow, a sweet caress from his boot's outer edge that curved the ball in off the post with a ping.
Leeds didn't let up. Aaronson was tireless, Jack Harrison took over as Okafor tired, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin helped Leeds recreate Howard Wilkinson's Leeds from 1990/91 — winning the headers and flick-ons that made sure play was built from Bournemouth's end. "Once they started going more direct we haven't competed so well," said Iraola. "It's not just the aerial threat, it's a team that runs a lot. We are also a team that runs a lot and normally we're not afraid of making it hard in that way. Today I think they've been better than us in that aspect."
Which is a significant marker: one Leeds keep putting down in games this season (not at Arsenal). Bournemouth may have been coming up from League Two when we were coming up from League One in 2010, but the sexiest club badge in English football got to the Premier League a long time before we did. See also Newcastle, Fulham, Wolves, all teams we had recent Championship business with, and Everton who should have been in the second tier at some point come on surely, all teams who think themselves established in the Premier League. And all teams we've gone toe to toe with and outplayed in some aspects — but not others. What's good about this season so far is how good it feels, as a fan, to watch a team putting so much hard work in to achieving a very difficult goal. What was nagging at me, under the heavy silence that descended on Beeston in the 93rd minute, was feeling that the players need to be winning the points they're earning, now, to bolster against all this getting more difficult as winter closes in. ⭑彡