Leeds United - 3 Long Years in the Premiership Quiz

Answer: Jack Harrison

Liverpool won the match 4-3 in a see-sawing contest. 'Pool were awarded an early penalty after a strict interpretation of the new handball laws - the ball had struck debutant Robin Koch on the thigh and deflected onto his arm. The interpretation of the rule was amended following the match - cold comfort. Bamford and Klich were the other two scorers for Leeds in the match.

Answer: Manchester City

In a match United were expected (by everyone apart from Leeds fans) to lose, Rodrigo equalised after United had gone behind. The game finished 1-1 at Elland Road on Sat 3rd Oct 2020 (it was the 4th game of the season, which started late because of the Covid-extended 2019-20 season).

Leeds defeated Fulham 4-3 at home on Sat 19th Sep (2nd game of the season), Sheffield United 1-0 away on Sun 27th Sep (3rd game), and lost to Wolves 1-0 at home on Mon 19th Oct (5th game).

Answer: Aston Villa

Bamford's hat-trick was delivered in a 3-0 away win at Villa Park on Friday 23rd October. One left foot, one right foot, one header. Done, gone, see you later, Villa. The other three opponents listed all ended in defeat: 4-1 at home to Leicester (game 7 on Mon 2nd Nov), 3-1 away to Chelsea (game 11 on Sat 5th Dec), and 4-1 away to Crystal Palace (one of Leeds' worst performanc6es of the season, game 8 on Sat 7th Nov).

Answer: Raphinha

Arguably, Raphael Dias Belloli (Raphinha) was the most astute purchase the club has ever made, certainly in recent times. Transferred from French club Rennes in October 2020, he was transferred to Real Madrid in July 2022. In the intervening period, he brought 2 seasons of joy to United supporters with his wing wizardry, dribbling, pace and shooting ability. His performances whilst at Elland Road earned him an international callup for Brazil.

Sadly, Pablo Hernandez, a cult hero at Elland Road for his efforts in the previous seasons, leading United to promotion, was noticeably under-utilised by Marcelo Bielsa in the Premier League. Pablo never scored a Premier League goal for Leeds.

Mateusz Bogusz only made one appearance for Leeds and it was not in the Premier league. He scored no goals. Similarly, Ryan Edmondson made two appearances for Leeds, both in the Championship, and did not score.

Answer: Stuart Dallas

Leeds performed a smash and grab that left City fans still scratching their heads. Well, it wasn't Barry Douglas, he only played one game in the league all season and this one wasn't it. And it wasn't Liam Cooper! He got himself sent off, so at half time Leeds were a goal and a player down. To say it wasn't looking good was an understatement.

Stuart Dallas scored an unlikely opening goal in the 42nd minute to see Leeds 1-0 up at half time. Manchester City equalised in the 76th minute. Dallas scored the winner: a perfectly executed outside of the foot 30 metre pass from Alioski sent Dallas through, to slide the ball under the keeper in the final few minutes of the game (it was in 91st minute). Cue Leeds fans breaking into a parody of Starship's, "We built this city" : "We beat Man City, we beat Man City when Dallas goaled ... "

Answer: Gaetano Berardi

Berardi, a Swiss international, made his 2 appearances in the final 2 games of the season, against Southampton and West Bromwich Albion. This followed 9 months out with an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Jenkins started just once, in the inglorious FA Cup Third Round 3-0 defeat at Crawley Town. Oh dear, those were the days. Greenwood came on as a substitute in the same game.

The single appearance by Gott was in a 1-1 draw (lost 9-8 on penalties) against Hull City in the EFL Cup.

Answer: Brighton & Hove Albion

Brighton defeated Leeds 2-0 on Sat 1st May at the Falmer Stadium (this author refuses to talk in sponsorship names, if it can be at all avoided). The Burnley match was a wonderful 4-0 away win. Home draws against Liverpool and Manchester United were satisfying after losing away to both teams earlier in the season.

Answer: Luke Ayling

Well, that was a barrel of laughs! A 5-1 away loss to they-who-shall-not-be-named-again to open the season. Having said that, Ayling's goal was the pick of the match, a piledriver into the top corner from outside the area. That levelled the score just after half-time, but that was as good as it got. Paul Pogba equalled a Premier League record for the number of individual assists in a match (4) - it was a small consolation to Leeds fans that that was about as good as Pogba's season got.

Answer: Norwich City and Wolverhampton Wanderers

Sadly, all of the 8 teams listed in the choices above are the only teams Leeds defeated in the entire season. Although, they did beat both Watford and Norwich City home and away (just as well). The matches against Norwich and Wolves, played in March 2022, were pivotal in Leeds United's season - both games involved stoppage time winners.

They were the first two matches of a 5-game unbeaten run which returned eleven points. This was to prove crucial in terms of the whole season.

Answer: Harrison (3)

Jack Harrison scored his first hat-trick for the club in a crucial away win. This followed a 3-1 victory over Burnley, and it seemed like it was going to be a good January in the league, until Leeds lost at home 0-1 to Newcastle United late in the month.

Answer: American

Jesse Marsch was recruited from German club RB Leipzig to replace Bielsa. Whilst being revered by Leeds supporters for his work in the preceding seasons, a growing concern regarding El Loco had been his inflexibility to change his approach when things were going wrong, and go massively wrong they did in the 6 matches mentioned. Losses to Newcastle (1-0), Everton (fellow relegation contenders, 3-0, that hurt), Manchester United (4-2), Liverpool (6-0) and Tottenham (4-0) sealed Bielsa's fate.

Leeds have never had an Australian manager. Bielsa was an Argentine. Uwe Rosler was German and managed the club for three short months in 2015.

Answer: Nohan Kenneh

Nohan Kenneh holds this interesting distinction; it happened in the away match at Wolves on Friday 18th March, where Leeds were 2-0 down in the second half, with less than half an hour to play.

After a Wolves player was sent off in the 53rd minute, Leeds rallied with two quick-fire goals in the 63rd and 66th to draw level. They won the match 3-2 with Luke Ayling scoring in the 91st (time added-on). Nohan Kenneh (apparently) went off like a firecracker when Ayling scored and it was too much for the officials to bear. Yellow for you, me old son. He never got onto the field in that match, or any other. In June 2022, he moved to Hibernian. Similarly, Caprile (to Bari, July 2022), Kamwah (Dunfermline, on loan, January 2022, and later Burton Albion, October 2022) and Temenuzhkov (to CDA Navalcarnero, Spain, August 2022) all departed with club with zero appearances for the first team.

Answer: Brentford 1-2 Leeds United

History shows that Leeds won 2-1 whilst Burnley lost 2-1 at home to Newcastle United. As (sensibly) all final round matches are played at the same time and day (to avoid collusion and/or a team knowing exactly what result it needs in advance), watching both of these matches was a nervous affair. Burnley went behind so at that time, Leeds were safe by one point. Raphinha scored for Leeds from the penalty spot (Leeds safe by three points).

Newcastle doubled their lead against Burnley. Then Burnley scored, fingernails time again! Then Canos scored for Brentford (which cut Leeds United's safety to one point). I was watching both matches at once (having 2 monitors can be very handy!). At this stage there were twelve minutes of normal time left in each match. If Burnley scored now and had the scores then remained the same, Leeds would be relegated. Brentford's goal scorer, Canos, then got himself sent off in the 80th minute, giving Leeds a man advantage.

In the Burnley match, the ball was crossed into the Newcastle penalty area, straight to the feet of Dutch striker Wout Weghorst, who was on loan to them at the time. If Weghorst scored, Leeds would have to score, or face the drop. Weghorst screwed his shot wide. Back at Brentford, in stoppage time (94th minute), Jack Harrison scored for Leeds with a deflected shot. Burnley were down. Leeds stayed up. Pandemonium ensued at the Leeds end of Brentford Community Stadium and in front of my monitors! The manager Jesse Marsch had done it, he had kept Leeds up! Was he the new Messiah?

Answer: 2-1 win

Leeds went behind in the match after just 6 minutes, and all those feelings from the last two seasons came flooding back. Then Rodrigo equalised, and after that, with 15 minutes to go, Wolves kindly scored an own goal to kick the season off for Leeds in style. Was Jesse Marsch, the manager, the saviour he seemed to be?

Answer: 3rd

Third! Rare air! Champion's League spot! Victory over Wolves in the opener, 3-0 against Chelsea in the 3rd match (arguably one of their finest matches in the 3 years back in the Premier League) and sandwiched in between was a 2-2 away draw at Southampton (where United were 2-0 up before conceding 2 goals in the last 18 minutes). Without that blip they would've been 1st, at the top of the table.

Sadly, this proved to be a false dawn. Leeds took 2 points from their next possible twenty-four, to be left one place above the relegation spots. Back in familiar territory. Again. The Jesse Marsch bubble had burst.

Answer: Willie Gnonto

Not only did Gnonto score, he did so in the 26th second of the match, with a Paolo Di Canio-esque flying wrong foot volley at the near post. Gnonto added a second, and Leeds went on to win 5-2 They then defeated Accrington Stanley 3-1 away in the 4th Round, before going out in the 5th Round, 2-0 at Fulham.

Answer: Crysencio Summerville

Summerville scored in the 89th minute after Bamford had bought down a cross from Gnonto. Rodrigo had scored in the 6th minute after being more alert than Virgil van Dijk to latch onto a mis-placed pass by 'Pool defender, Joe Gomez. It was van Dijk's first league loss at home since signing for the Reds in 2018. Mohamed Salah equalised for Liverpool in the 14th minute.

This game, and the following 4-3 last gasp win (after being 3-2 down with 6 minutes to go) over Bournemouth, prolonged Marsch's stay but he ultimately got the sack after the 1-0 defeat away to fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest. Since the win against Chelsea on matchday 3, and apart from the two intervening wins, Leeds had only taken 6 points out of a possible forty-five.

Michael Skubala was appointed caretaker-manager for 3 matches but that also included yet another loss to a fellow struggling team, Everton, 1-0 away. Javi Gracia was then appointed and Leeds won 1-0 against Southampton in his first match in charge. Had Javi arrived in time to save Leeds from the drop?

Answer: 28

Twenty-eight goals conceded in eleven matches is not the way to avoid relegation and so, after United's 4-1 away loss at fellow strugglers (hmmm, how many times has THAT recurring scenario pop up) Bournemouth at the end of April, Javi was made to walk the plank.

Although Leeds won 3 matches and drew 2 during that spell, unfortunately, the clubs around them were all having end of season revivals of form. By the time Gracia left, Leeds were one spot above the relegation places, but not really looking like survival was likely.

Answer: Won 0, Drew 1, Lost 3

It turned out that some jobs were just too big, even for Big Sam. To be fair, it didn't help that his first test was away to Manchester City. Leeds were 2-0 down after 27 minutes, but in the end put in a good shift to lose by a single goal. That loss put Leeds in 19th place.

His next match was against Newcastle United, pushing at the top of the table for a Champions League spot. No chance of mercy here! Leeds went 1-0 up through Luke Ayling, but then gifted 2 penalties to the opposition. Leeds equalised through a rare Rasmus Kristensen goal but a draw, although pushing the club up to 18th, was never going to be much good.

Next up was West Ham United away: Leeds went 1-0 up via Rodrigo, but once Declan Rice equalised, there was only one side in it. Leeds lost 3-1 and fell back down to 19th place. Leeds could still survive relegation, but their match and two other matches would all have to fall in their favour...

The final matchday, against Tottenham Hotspur, arrived. The scenario was as follows: Leeds would have to win against Spurs; Everton would have to lose at home to Bournemouth; Leicester City would have to not win at home to West Ham United.

Leeds went down inside 2 minutes against Spurs, not the start they wanted: 0-1 at the interval. Leicester were 1-0 ahead at half-time. Everton and Bournemouth were deadlocked at 0-0. So even at this stage, 5 goals were needed and all to specific teams. Not looking good! Porro scored a second for Spurs straight after the break, 2-0. Everton scored after 57 minutes, 1-0. Leicester scored another after 62 minutes, 2-0. Leeds got a consolation goal but Spurs scored 2 more to win 4-1. Leicester ended up winning 2-1 and Everton maintained their 1-0 scoreline to the end.

In the end, none of the three matches fell in Leeds' favour. Leeds finished 19th with only Southampton propping up the rest of the table below them. Both of them were relegated to the Championship.

Answer: Jack Harrison

Jack Harrison scored in the first game (and the last) of the first season back in the Premier League. He also scored the winning goal in the last game of the second season against Brentford, cementing Leeds United's top-flight status. Adding to this record, he scored in the club's last game in the Premier League, an insipid 4-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur.

Of the others: Mateusz Klich had departed the Whites for Los Angeles FC (in March 2023) and Tyler Roberts was on loan to Queen's Park Rangers. Special mention goes to Weston McKennie - I will try to be kind and therefore will simply say, there were a lot of supporters out there wondering what business he had being on a football field.

And just like that, after one exhilarating season, and two extremely stressful and depressing seasons, Leeds United's run in the Premier League had run its course. In the words of Jim Stafford, singing "Swamp Witch Hattie": "Ain't much pride when you're trapped inside a slowly sinking ship". But supporters (of ALL clubs) are made of sterner stuff. So for now, at the end of the 2022-23 season, the words of Vera Lynn apply: "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when ..."