Burnley 2-0 Leeds United: Crosspatch
Not taking three points from this relegation rival means those three points will have to be taken from better teams later. So Leeds need to become an even better team, soon, if they can.
Not taking three points from this relegation rival means those three points will have to be taken from better teams later. So Leeds need to become an even better team, soon, if they can.
It's important that Leeds United outplayed Spurs in every department of this match and marched off the pitch, chests out and heads high, flicking Vs at the referee and feeling hard done by.
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.
Premier League life was better for Wolves before they started scoring goals. Leeds, now they've begun, should feel no need to stop.
Players like Kevin come at a cost: of money, soul, time and boredom. The good news is, it can be done. That's not necessarily good news.
The two games at Elland Road this season have been invitations to make and feel the difference in the place where it matters, where at its best it can be felt far beyond Beeston.
Most of the 591 passes went side to side and side to side and side to side then side to side. The whole thing was a collective failure to engage brains, summed up at what's supposedly United's new superpower, set-pieces.
At least Sean Longstaff has experience of handling this sort of defeat: he's lost 4-0 and 4-1 at the Emirates for Newcastle. You can either view that as the record of a loser or assume it has instilled resilience, and that might go to the heart of the argument.
These three precious points are one more gift from the 2025 Champions to themselves and the players getting ready to join in.
Every part of this match was untraditional, bordering on blasphemic. A lot of this feels like what a lot of people absolutely do not want football to be like, but then when football is like this, it starts to feel quite fun.