10th February 2026. EPL
Well, well, well! Leeds in London getting a few breaks that go in our favour! Who’d have thought it?
Leeds were not in this game for an hour or so, Chelsea by all accounts playing one of their best first halves since Liam Rosenior took charge, and our latest back five configuration looking a bit all at sea at times. But, you have to hand it to this squad of Daniel Farke’s, give them an inch, and they’ll steal a mile from you!
Because of the revised back five, it’s almost churlish to put the spotlight on another piece of sloppy defending by Leeds, but unfortunately, it handed the home side a 24th-minute lead. Until then, you wouldn’t say we were comfortable, but we were just about coping with all that Chelsea could come up with.
Then, we leave Cole Palmer, one of the finest players in England, in acres of space with Ilia Gruev more focused ahead of him than behind, Seb Bornauw lets Joao Pedro get goal-side of him, and the Chelsea frontman does the rest with a perfect little dink over Karl Darlow.
You could argue it was nicely played by Chelsea, but for me it smacked again of a defence that has never quite got to grips with the demands of the Premier League, and its lightning-quick pace and trickery. Chelsea had gobbled up the only big chance of the half, and their other seven goal attempts didn’t trouble us overly much.
If the first half concession was sloppy, the next one, 13 minutes into the second half, was just plain naïve, and, judging by the immediate reaction of Jaka Bijol, throwing his hands up to his face as soon as he laid hands on Pedro, he won’t need to be told about it.
Pedro was going away from the goal, so it was a daft, needless penalty to give away, knowing that the Brazilian would throw himself to the floor at the slightest touch – it’s what strikers do. When ‘Cold Cole' Palmer clinically put the spot-kick away, there looked to be no hope of a Leeds comeback. Apart from the two Bijol placed on Pedro’s back, we’d not yet laid a glove on the Blues, and no one could argue that the 2-0 score-line pretty well reflected the game up to that point.
But it’s a funny old game sometimes. Leeds have had next to no luck in London since 'Adam' was a lad, yet here we were playing one of the best sides in the PL, and they gave us a helping hand.
Jayden Bogle had been given a bit of a roving brief today, playing in a more advanced position, with James Justin performing the defensive duties at right back. So, it was no surprise to see him burst into the Chelsea area after 67 minutes, after all we’ve been seeing him doing that recently, even when he’s been the nominated right back. It was a surprise, though, to see Moises Caicedo stick out a needless leg to trip Bogle when there were plenty of Chelsea players around to clear any imminent danger from the flying Bogle. Penalty Leeds!
I confess I was still thinking 'London curse' as Lukas Nmecha stepped up to take the kick… but, for once, 'Lady Luck' didn’t seem to be batting for the Capital; Lukas powered the spot-kick home deliciously. Now there was hope where no hope had been!
To be gifted one goal was certainly unusual down here, but to be gifted two, well, you would be forgiven for thinking the gods were starting to look after us.
Once again, it was Bogle in the thick of the action in the Chelsea area after one Chelsea defender played the infamous ‘air kick’ and then three more tried to dispossess Jayden. One gave up – thank you very much! – while two continued to hack and hassle our new striker!
Then the Chelsea keeper had a go, but Jayden wouldn't let go of the ball, and both the keeper and Jayden collapsed to the turf. A couple of blokes in front of me jumped up and obscured my vision at that point, so the next thing I saw was all the Leeds players dashing to the corner celebrating! My first thought was that we’d won another penalty, although I did think even for Leeds in London that was a hell of a celebration for the award of a spot kick!
Now I’ve seen replays, it is clear that as Jayden went down, Nmecha had arrived on the blind side to just poke the loose ball into the path of Noah Okafor – in a not dissimilar fashion to how Justin did for Noah against Forest a few days earlier!
We’d got ourselves an equaliser, and that fully justified the extravagant celebrations! VAR even had a look at a suspicion of handball by Jayden as he collected the ball in the first phase of this chaos, but that too was adjudged in our favour. Most strange!
This was dreamland. Okay, I’m sure most Leeds fans, like me, still thought the 'London curse' would sting us in the end, but au contraire, it seemed Chelsea were cursed in this one. Pedro got himself free again in the Leeds area, but put his header over the bar and then 'Cold Cole' Palmer somehow froze and managed to shin the ball over the crossbar from almost no yards out! Yes, all very un-Leeds in London-like!
And that was that, six minutes of added time safely manoeuvred, and Leeds were heading home with a 2-2 draw, the score of that famous Wembley final between these sides all those years ago. Let’s hope that, unlike that time, when Chelsea had the last laugh, this season we go on to secure what we are all praying for.
Premier League
Chelsea 2 (Pedro 24’, Palmer pen 58’)
Leeds United 2 (Nmecha pen 67’, Okafor 72’)
Chelsea: Sánchez (GK), Cucurella (Hato 46’), Fernández (C), Palmer, Santos (Delap 79’), Pedro, Chalobah, Caicedo, Gusto, Acheampong (Fofana 79’), Estêvão (Neto 64’). Subs not used: Sharman-Lowe (GK), Badiashile, Sarr, Guiu, Garnacho.
Leeds: Darlow (GK), Bogle, Gudmundsson, Ampadu (C), Rodon, Aaronson (Longstaff 90’), Nmecha (James 82’), Bijol, Bornauw (Okafor 55’), Justin, Gruev. Subs not used: Perri (GK), Piroe, Tanaka, Byram, Gnonto, Buonanotte.
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Attendance: 39,253
Referee: Robert Jones
Booked: Gusto, Acheampong, Palmer (Chelsea) Gudmundsson, Bornauw, Justin, Longstaff (Leeds)
