Chelsea 1-0 Leeds United: The fix
It might make for some grim football, but Leeds look grimly determined to stay in games, less willing to throw them away. And yet, they do.
Some advice, following this game, that Leeds United's football players could listen to: stop conceding from corners, and start scoring from them instead, and things might go better. By the time they came closest to scoring United were a goal down after letting Wesley Fofana head one in. And when they came closest to scoring, from a corner in stoppage time, it was Illan Meslier, the Leeds goalkeeper, trying to power a diving header past Chelsea's. None of this was ideal. So, some things to work on there.
There are plenty of other things Leeds can work on improving, and new manager Javi Gracia's job essentially starts now. He has made Leeds look better, using his one officially permitted afternoon before the win over Southampton last Saturday, then Sunday and Monday before travelling to Fulham for Tuesday night's FA Cup defeat, then Thursday and maybe Friday depending when Leeds went back down south to lose again. With a clear week now before a game at home to Brighton next Saturday, maybe Gracia can move Leeds on from looking better to being better.
But there will only be so much he can do with those days, which is why the defeat at Chelsea felt like expectations being met, with all due dismality. Leeds have not been good all season, and they weren't about to suddenly become good now, away to Chelsea. They probably won't become good before the end of the season, so while sudden excellence would be helpful, it can't be reasonably expected. There's a reason so few managers seem willing to take mid-season jobs these days. They know they're not magic. They know trends are hard to change and easy to continue. Habits, too. Teams at the bottom of the football league divisions are like sixty-a-day smokers. You can't expect them to just quit. Maybe, with some help, they'll vape.
It's a vicious spiral with an agonising howl for a heart, as being out of form makes it harder to get into form, and as bad form drags a team to the bottom, the desperation for form becomes more acute. As players perform worse, the need for them to perform brilliantly increases. Mistakes mean more and cost more in a relegation battle. But if the players weren't likely to make mistakes, their team wouldn't be in a relegation battle in the first place. It's one of football's fascinating paradoxes. The closer players get to hell, the greater the demands on them for angelic magnificence. Fans want and need Mark Viduka scoring against Arsenal. They're much more likely to get Mark Viduka being sent off at Bolton.
Viduka did happen at Arsenal in 2003, though, and so did Jackie Harrison at Brentford in 2022, and as gaps close at the bottom of this season's Premier League Leeds look as well placed as any of the bottom six to stay up. (The opposite also applies.) Their performance at Chelsea was disciplined as they withstood several hundred millions pounds of pressure, which made losing the game at one set-piece more galling. At least Fulham, denied chances in United's penalty area, needed two worldies to win. As at Everton the other week, this could and should have been a valuable away point. It might make for some grim football, but Leeds look grimly determined to stay in games, less willing to throw them away. And yet, they do.