There is a return to Elland Road this weekend for Leeds United as they take on Chelsea in the Premier League.
Leeds have run themselves onto a bad patch of form, losing four of the last five, and Chelsea’s looming visit to Elland Road makes matters more difficult.
As usual, the LeedsAllOver team – Kris (FA5), Toby (Neutral) & Alfie (N12) – deliver their predictions ahead of an undoubtedly hard fixture…
We’re up against a completely different Chelsea to the one managed by Frank Lampard last time out.
Thomas Tuchel has managed to shape a much more defensively sound squad at Stamford Bridge, conceding two goals in his 11 games so far.
With that in mind, we’re going to need a much more threatening performance than our last two against West Ham and Aston Villa.
We’ve definitely got it in us to hurt the Blues with our quality, but I’m very concerned about the mobility they’ve shown in wide areas, in their starting XI and on the bench.
On the break, we could very easily be caught cold here and need to be wary of the threat their wing-backs and wingers possess.
I’m not overly confident here and I’m going for a 2-1 Chelsea win.
I fully expect this to be a hugely entertaining encounter, but I do think Chelsea will claim all three points here.
We have already seen this season that Leeds will not shy away from going all out even against the Premier League’s top teams, and there seems to be no reason to expect that to change here.
Indeed, having lost four of their last five games, you do feel as though Marcelo Bielsa and his side will be desperate to put things right, given the Leeds boss is not one who is going to rest on his laurels even when a place in the top-flight is certain for next season.
However, Chelsea look incredibly solid defensively under the guidance of Thomas Tuchel, while going forward, there have been signs in their recent performance that they are starting to really click in attack.
As a result, I do think that the Blues with just have too much about them here, particularly with their added top-flight experience, so I’m going for a 3-1 away win.
It’s a really difficult game for Leeds. We saw in the first fixture this season with Chelsea that they’ve got the players to really nullify us and that’s not changed.
What has changed, of course, is that Frank Lampard is no longer with the Blues. However, it appears that Thomas Tuchel is far better equipped to get the best out of this Chelsea side.
They look a really good outfit again and catch Leeds at the perfect time given Bielsa’s side are on a bad run of form.
It’s difficult to sit here and predict heavy defeats for your side, but sometimes you have to sit back and accept that Leeds are going up against a squad that’s beyond their level.
That’s the case this weekend and I’m fearing the worst.
0-3. And that’s hard to write.