West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Leeds United: We Need A Resolution
Leeds and West Brom are on the same side of the fighting against the teams below. As such you could take this match as pure sport, a game to decide nothing except who has the better team.
Everything was shared at The Hawthorns. The goals and points went one to each, followed by deep hugs and admiring speeches. Leeds United presented Semi Ajayi with the first goal, and he returned the favour by deflecting the equaliser.
Most significant is that Leeds and West Bromwich Albion share the top two promotion places and a feeling of relief that this game is over. Neither team wanted to be on the wrong end of a blow to their morale, even if it wouldn't materially affect the league table. This was no Disgrace of Gijón, two teams playing to a mutually beneficial result. But both managers, Slaven Bilic and Marcelo Bielsa, spoke afterwards about the respectful spirit of the game, the strong but fair tackling, the way each side's way of playing created chances to win.
For such a hyped, anticipated and pressurised game, there was not actually much more than morale at stake. Results elsewhere meant that defeat for either team would be softened by the consolation prize of an eight point lead over 3rd place, where the real battle is. A top of the table clash takes on a different character when the top two, at the end of the season, share the main prize of promotion; Leeds and West Brom are on the same side of the fighting against the teams below.
As such you could take this match as pure sport, a game to decide nothing except who has the better team. In that respect Leeds should be happier. It's not only to Marcelo Bielsa's credit, but to his players', that Leeds have scored two in open play in two games against the team that has taken its proper place as the division's strongest, with only the gift of a goal from a corner — the flaw in Leeds that everybody knows — denying them all six points.
Whether it's down to Bielsa's stubborn nobility in, or rather outside, the transfer market; Andrea Radrizzani's old-fashioned Yorkshire grip on the club's pound notes; West Brom's parachute payments; or their willingness to flex with Financial Fair Play, the fact is that West Brom have Gareth Barry on their bench and Leeds have Robbie Gotts.
The disparity that Premier League money, still pouring into the bank accounts of its relegated teams, has caused in the Championship, along with the Peacocks' failure to grasp those riches in a decade of not trying hard enough, means that ten years after beating the Premier League champions at Old Trafford while still a League One team, Leeds now go into some league matches with a similar economic disadvantage. Before we snap ourselves out of it, we can allow ourselves to wonder how Leeds might cope in the Premier League next season, but West Brom represent the financial muscle and squad quality Leeds will face there. And Leeds haven't lost to them, and ran Fulham close enough to be optimistic of beating them at Elland Road.