CHELSEA FIGHT TO THE END
Jorginho’s last-gasp penalty settles feisty clash with Leeds Chelsea 3 Mount 42, Jorginho 58 pen, 90 pen Leeds 2 Raphinha 28 pen, Gelhardt 83
OLD ENMITIES don’t easily die. The embers of a historic grudge can quickly fire up into life again. And a 51-year-old feud between these clubs was given fresh life in a feisty encounter, which ultimately saw Chelsea come out on top against an injury-ravaged Leeds.
Chelsea had steadied themselves after their recent wobble in form. Yet in the heat of the encounter, as Junior Firpo and Kai Havertz clashed at the final whistle, prompting almost all 22 players to rush to join in a mass shoving match, which saw Antonio Rudiger held back as Illan Meslier gestured at him to be quiet, it seemed the bragging rights were almost more important than the three points.
‘If you have Toni, you have Toni,’ was Thomas Tuchel’s verdict, having watched his defender sprint across the pitch to get involved to offer his input to the pushing and shoving ongoing at full time.
‘You can’t have him be the emotional leader on the pitch and suddenly not get involved if there are team-mates to protect or an argument. This is 100-percent Toni. But hopefully there was no harm done.’
Bielsa was somewhat more prosaic. Speaking through his translator, the quote provided was: ‘In a game with emotions so high, (with) two liberating passions… at the end, this was excessive (but) within the margin of what’s tolerable and it was justified. To insist, all of us hoped it would not happen.’
Tuchel was right though, in that Rudiger wouldn’t accept anything less than a victory here, even if Chelsea weren’t at their best. Yet he wasn’t alone. A game in which Mason Mount, Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilcueta all either gestured to or celebrated in front of the Leeds fans, while Raphina did the same.
Chelsea were made to fight for the points. First half, they were struggling. Chelsea’s wing-backs nullified by man-to-man marking from Jack Harrison on the left and Jamie Shackleton on the right. Neither Alonso nor James could get in the game.
Leeds took the lead on 28 minutes when Alonso injudiciously slid in on Dan James, who had threaded the ball between his legs before being taken out by the wing-back. Raphinha took the penalty, scored and then performed the samba for The Shed.
Having coped with Chelsea so well, Bielsa would have been immensely frustrated at the manner in which Leeds conceded the equaliser on 42 minutes. Goalkeeper Meslier tried a chipped ball out from the back which left Stuart Dallas exposed to an onrushing Alonso. He fed Werner, who returned the pass to Alonso and he pulled back for Mount to sweep the ball home.
Tension broken, Chelsea looked more themselves and the dynamic of the game changed. Chelsea approached the second half more confidently, though Leeds’ defiance held until Raphinha, supposedly back to help out defensively at a corner, decided to make the rashest of challenges as he wiped out Rudiger in the penalty area.
True, he did play the ball but it seemed an incidental accident as he sliced through the player. It took VAR to overturn Chris Kavanagh’s initial refusal to award the penalty. Jorginho stepped up and drove the penalty into the top left corner for 2-1.
Yet Leeds hit back on 83 minutes when 19-year-old Joe Gelhardt, a Liverpudlian plucked from the Wigan academy when that club was in administration, came on.
Attacking quickly, Mateusz Klich played in Tyler Roberts, who crossed for Gelhardt, who finished magnificently from just inside the box for 2-2 with his first touch of the ball.
Then came the final twist. Chelsea were throwing many forward but there was little danger in injury time when Rudiger received the ball in the box. Yet Klich clumsily kicked him, missing the ball. It was soft but was never going be overturned by VAR. Jorginho provided the denouement, with a confident finish for 3-2.
Subs (not used): Arrizabalaga, Pulisic, Saul, Barkley, Ziyech, Sarr. Booked: James, Mount.
LEEDS UTD (4-3-3): Meslier; Dallas, Ayling, Llorente, Firpo; Shackleton (Klich 59), Forshaw, Harrison; Roberts, Raphinha (Gelhardt 82), James (Cresswell 88).
Subs (not used): Klaesson, Drameh, Summerville, McKinstry, McCarron, Jenkins.
Booked: Firpo, Shackleton, Klich, Meslier, Llorente. Referee: Chris Kavanagh.