Leeds United 4-0 Middlesbrough: Untypical

Here are Leeds United, rebelling against themselves, by conforming. They did what they were supposed to do against Middlesbrough, and that's not Leeds United's style.

Too often Leeds defy the expectations of their own fans while exceeding those of their opponents. Teams expect to lose to Leeds, but get gift-wrapped winners or defensive errors in their favour, like a lollipop for being brave at the dentist.

November 2019 has upended the idea of the sort of game Leeds United lose, as they've played five of that sort of game and won them all. Fortunately Leeds fans are so habitually cynical that even five straight wins and eight unbeaten won't change our assumption that we'll slip up next time, so as long as the Peacocks keep playing against our instincts this season and proving everybody else right instead, then things just might turn out okay.

Middlesbrough at home after a run of four wins was about as gimme as it gets; add their injury crisis and their inexperienced manager and there seemed few opportunities for Boro to turn around their recent form. They can only have expected one thing from their visit to Elland Road to play Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds United.

There were a few glimmers their way. Leeds hadn't played at home since November 9th, so that winning run manifested itself in distant Luton and Reading, which might as well be other planets to many of the 35,000 turning up in LS11. Away wins are fine, but we'll believe this lot are any good when we see them win at home.

The other glints came from Middlesbrough's midweek win at Barnsley, their first win anywhere since mid-September, and the ability of their ex-Leeds contingent to get the players as up as the fans for a local not-quite-derby. Manager Jonathan Woodgate brought Robbie Keane with him as his assistant, and as representatives of our Champions League season, well, you kind of wished it was Mark Viduka and Olivier Dacourt.

Woodgate should have become the best of David O'Leary's babies; while Alan Smith got up the noses of experienced defenders at one end of the pitch, from the day of his debut Woodgate was calmly reading the games of top class strikers back to them, and they couldn't believe the accomplished voice they were hearing. But he spent most of the Champions League season in self-inflicted exile at Hull Crown Court, wasting away and wasting his potential. As for Robbie Keane, he was signed too late to be eligible for European games, and was used at Leeds like an unnecessarily extravagant dessert adding nothing to an already excellent dinner. When Leeds were already 3-0 up, another goal and a cartwheel from an £11m substitute was like lowering a Viennetta from a helicopter and setting it on fire.