Leeds Utd v Chelsea Match Thread

Leeds Utd v Chelsea
Wednesday 11th May@19:30 | Elland Road

Chelsea are the visitors to Elland Road on Wednesday evening as Leeds look to take advantage of their recent poor run of form. Not only have Thomas Tuchel's men been knocked out of the Champions League, but they lost at Everton, and then surrendered a two goal lead to Wolves at the weekend, dropping two points. With only three games of the season left, Leeds will be desperate to get something from the match as they look to claw their way out of the bottom three.

It's been almost 20 years (28th December 2002) since Leeds last beat Chelsea. First half goals from Woodgate and Milner giving Leeds fans some festive joy in front of just over 40,000 fans at Elland Road. What Leeds fans would give for a repeat performance.

Leeds face a wing-back crisis after Luke Ayling's sending off against Chelsea last weekend. With Cody Drameh unable to be recalled from Cardiff, and with Stuart Dallas sidelined for up to 18 months with a broken Femur, Leeds will have to rely upon Jamie Shackleton to fill the void on the right, with Junior Firpo on the left.

According to the 'Premier Injuries' board, Liam Cooper is rated as 50/50 to start on Wednesday night. If unfit to start, Jesse Marsch will probably opt to stick with Koch and Llorente. It will be interesting to see whether the gaffer sticks with Mateusz Klich in midfield, or promotes Lewis Bate to the starting line up to face his former club. The 19yo gave an impressive account of himself against the Gunners, and will be hoping for more game time before the season ends.

Patrick Bamford has a 25% chance of playing tomorrow. The 28yo is recovering from Plantar Fasciitis (inflammation from the part of your foot that connects your heel bone to your toes). In his absence, Marsch is likely to give Gelhardt a rare start. The 20yo was sacrificed after half an hour last weekend, after Ayling received his marching orders. Whilst it kept the scoreline flattering, it cancelled out our striking options.

With one win out of their last five, Blues Manager Thomas Tuchel dragged his players to the training ground on Sunday, much to the anger of his prima donna's. They are desperate to stay ahead of Arsenal, but with the FA Cup final on Saturday, will they rest players?

 

We’re just awful, it doesn’t matter what poor run of form other teams are having they’re still better than us. Don’t risk Bamford or Cooper save them for the last two games

 

A point here would be massive in our survival hopes, we must be a point better off than Burnley come the end of the season, i am relying on them not getting more than a point from their remaining fixtures, one more win from them and we would have Everest to climb.
Everton with a lot of luck ie playing teams that apear to have little interest in the end of season fixtures, and a little help ie how they got away with the Richarlison flare throwing incident seem to have got out of it, reminds me of the Villa luck a couple of seasons ago.

 

i'm not sure the last two are actually 'easier' games Risty

 

With regard to Richarlson and the flare throwing incident, maybe Fat Frank's constant moaning and writing letters of complaint about how unfair VAR has been to his team has paid dividends. They've suffered enough, lets sweep this one under the carpet. And Bielsa gets fined 200k for having someone look over a wall, because Fat Frank complained.

 

He not only complained but was proved to have lied about it, but nothing was said. We as a club meekly accepted it and paid up.

 

That's just reminded me of a comment that Fat Fwank made on Sunday that brought a wry smile to my face.

It was something about how great it was to see so many Everton fans at the training ground, watching the players train. It made me wonder how many of those watching had their notebooks out

 

The mood in our camp is pretty similar. We can't hold onto leads, we can't chance games and we crumble under pressure.

As ridiculous as this sounds this is a far more winnable game for you than Brighton (H) - Brighton are really good on the road, probably the best side to come to us other than City.

If it's any consolation Arsenal, Man Utd, Everton and Wolves were dead ducks until we showed up and gifted them points.

 

Not with the form both are in.

 

I admire your restraint Aski, whenever he opens his mouth it fills me with stronger feelings than a wry smile

 

Thanks for trying to give us a bit of hope mate but our lads can't pass a ball 5 yards to a teammate let alone get a goal in front.

I don't see us getting another point all season.

 

Well I was driving behind someone going less than 20 mph at the time, so I was already biting my tongue when I heard the interview

 

.....................Meslier....................
Shaks---Lllorente--Koch---Firpo
-----------Phillips------Bate----------
Raphinha------------------Harrison
-------Gelhardt------Rodrigo-------

 

Not helped by Ivan Toney tweeting the Leeds players singing “mind the gap” directed at Thomas Frank, don’t think they’re going to treat this as an end of season stroll.

 

So 4-0 to Chelsea it is
Next

 

Player of the season will be the Leeds Utd fans, because the shyt they have had to watch all season yet they still sing and call the players names, they cheer everything and have not once had a go at the players. Heros one and all, but I can safely say not one of our players has deserved them

 

KO 7-30pm tonight lads.

Wouldn't want you to miss the first couple of goals going in

Chelsea will field their strongest side available as PL qualification trumps FA Cup all season and every season. To be honest that doesn't worry me, they have a quality squad and whatever side they put out it would still be a difficult game. Bottom line is it's up tp us to put in a similar performance to the one down at Stamford Bridge but obviously cut out the individual errors. As much as Meslier made an absolute howler in the last match then so is giving away a cheap penalty when there's no danger whatsoever.

Looking forward to a tension filled evening.

 

In normal circumstances I'd agree but there are big changes at Chelsea this summer and the FA Cup Final is better for the CV of players who will be leaving.

 

Interesting comments and I can see why Rudiger, for example, would really want to lift a trophy before he goes. Doesn't mean he'll be rested tonight though and he'll still be his usual bastard to play against.

If Alonso is out injured then that should be a plus for us, depending on who's next in line for the left wing back slot.

 

Whoever plays that left hand side has always been our weak spot. Wolves killed us down that side in the 2nd half and will definitely be an area Raphinha will look to exploit.