24th October 2025. Premier League.
It’s a strange old game, isn’t it? Having dominated several games recently and come away with very little in the way of points, today was perhaps our least dominant display for weeks—especially in the second half —and yet we hoovered up all three points!
Our first half performance was on a par with what we’ve been serving up in most games this season, edging the possession, dominating the goal attempts by 9 to just 3 for the hapless Hammers and creating no less than three so-called big chances. Of course, the key today was that we put two of those big chances in the net and not the stands. So dominant were we in that first 45 minutes that West Ham recorded not a single ‘big chance’ of their own as Leeds ran riot.
Of course, an early goal always helps. It buoys the scorers and heaps despair on the team that concedes, especially when that team is lacking in momentum and confidence in the first place. West Ham is just such a team, with only one win in their previous eight Premier League games and no wins yet under their newly appointed manager, Nuno. You could almost see the Hammers’ shoulders slump when Brenden Aaronson poked Leeds into a third-minute lead.
The nature of that goal and the defensive shortcomings it highlighted would also not have helped their spirits. Brenden Aaronson had a hand in the buildup before Jayden Bogle whipped in a cross that Noah Okafor did well to get in front of a defender to head at goal. The keeper spilt it, and Brenden was on hand to poke it over the line, but Nuno will not be best pleased at the way two defenders stood like statues, allowing Brenden to pounce. It was a role reversal, really, of recent Leeds games when we’ve sometimes been guilty of being asleep at the wheel.
There was only really one scare created by the Hammers in the first half, and predictably, it came from Jarrod Bowen, who acrobatically tried a bicycle kick from 12 yards out. Lucas Perri saw it all the way through, and although he couldn’t hold it, he was alert enough to swipe it away from the danger area.
Then we saw one of those most delicious of things – a Leeds goal from a corner! Those harsh words from Daniel Farke about how he demanded that Joe Rodon become more of a threat in the opposition box seem to have worked a treat, as the defender can’t stop scoring now! Once again, though, Leeds were helped by the worst defence in the Premier League as Joe stole in behind two or three more statue-like Hammers to nod the ball perfectly into the corner. West Ham have now conceded nine goals from corners in their first nine league games – a Premier League record.
There were still a few signs of the profligate Leeds that we’ve seen lately, the one that wastes the odd chance or three. Ao Tanaka blasted one over the bar, Ethan Ampadu, having dribbled half the length of the pitch, couldn’t find a finish to suit, and then Noah Okafor did something similar as he did all the hard work, but curled his effort wide. These were all more difficult chances than we’d missed of late, but they underlined the dominance we showed before the break.
Leeds started the second half in a similar vein too. Brenden Aaronson reprised Ampadu’s effort by running with the ball from well inside our own half, slaloming through the whole West Ham team, but then he seemed to run out of steam as he hit a poor shot from the edge of the area. It took a deflection off a West Ham boot that almost turned it into a keeper-beater, but the ball just clipped off the top of the bar.
That Aaronson shot came just about on the hour mark, and it signalled a turning point in the game. The Hammers made two substitutions just after that, then two more later, and maybe that helped West Ham, or maybe the instruction was then for Leeds to sit in and try to see the game out at 2–0. The weather had turned too, with the rain pouring down for much of the second half. Whatever the cause, West Ham finally started to dominate the game, although without creating any serious chances.
They would post double the possession Leeds had in the second 45 and 6 shots to our 4, but it was only in the final minute that they broke through. It wasn’t a great advert for Premier League defending from Leeds, though. A simple but clever ball was lifted into the area with the outside of Bowen’s right boot, and Fernandes had the freedom of Elland Road to glance a back-header past Perri.
So, it was that proverbial game of two halves, really, Leeds looking as dominant as ever in the first and buoyed by those two early goals, but then gradually giving up the momentum after the break. It’s worth noting that we’d lost Gabriel Gudmundsson just before the break and Noah Okafor not long after, which probably didn’t help.
The nerves have been calmed, though. Had Leeds not won the three points tonight, I’m sure there would have been consequences, not least in battering our already dimmed confidence before we now face a series of tough-looking fixtures. Most of Daniel Farke’s detractors amongst the fan base will be quietened now until the next defeat, although they may well say “told you so” after Farke reinstated Lucas Perri and gave Jaka Bijol and Ao Tanaka their chances, all changes many fans had been calling for. 11 points from nine games is a respectable tally, and, as we approach the end of the first quarter of the season, that’s something to celebrate. Replicate that for the final three-quarters, and we ought to be safe. Enjoy your weekend, folks!
