West Bromwich Albion 0-5 Leeds United
Leeds United continued their march up the Premier League table with a resounding victory over West Brom tonight, a result which leaves the Baggies in serious trouble.
It was a clash of two big characters side by side in opposing dugouts, each with a strong philosophy of how the game should be played. West Brom boss Sam Allardyce has long been admired as a great pragmatist, and he was a pioneer of sports science in the English game around the same time Marcelo Bielsa was making his name as a coach at Espanyol.
Bielsa won this one… and by some margin!
The Baggies started the game deep in the relegation mire, five points from the safety line and that’s how they finished, but with a significantly worse goal difference. The pre-match Premier League 2020 betting odds backed Leeds to win at 2.01, and after 45 minutes it was a done deal.
Highlights of the game
So let’s take a look at the goals:
Nine minutes were on the clock when the visitors went ahead thanks to a catastrophic piece of defending which had Big Sam shaking his head in disbelief. Under no pressure at all, Romaine Sawyers played a back-pass to his keeper, but Sam Johnstone wasn’t where he expected and the ball rolled into the net.
If that was a farce, the second goal was a moment of genius from Ezgjan Alioski, who latched onto a West Brom clearance on the edge of the penalty area and smashed it beyond Johnstone and into the far corner. 2-0.
That was just after the half-hour and minutes later Jack Harrison made it three. The winger played a one-two with Patrick Bamford and then he turned Darnell Furlong inside out with a lovely touch before beating Johnstone with an unstoppable shot into the top corner.
Defensive midfielder Kalvin Phillips has been the heartbeat of this Leeds team in their first season back in the top flight, and he was the man behind Leeds fourth as the visitors ran riot. He played a brilliant cross-field ball to Mateusz Klich and he pushed it through to Rodrigo who swept it home with the help of a huge deflection from Dara O’Shea.
With ten league goals already from his first 15 games, and with a 53 per cent shot accuracy, Patrick Bamford has emerged as a surprise candidate for the Golden Boot this season, but he spent the whole of the first half watching his team-mates show him how to finish, while the Baggies were completely stunned.
Number five came on 72 minutes and it was a lovely goal following a slick passing move Raphinha picked up the ball, cut inside and bent a beauty into the far corner giving the hapless Johnstone no chance.
Key statistics
Did we expect the Premier League 2020 highlights to be dominated by attack versus defence with the Yorkshire side pouring forward towards a Midlands brick-like defence?
Well I did, and I was not alone.
But this was a case of attack versus no defence as the Yorkshire side blew the Baggies away with a first-half blitz. Leeds edged a win against Burnley last time out but this was so one-sided that Allardyce will have realised the size of the job he has in hand.
With only 25 per cent possession, four shots to Leeds’ 14 and just one effort on target while Leeds bagged five goals this was a shambolic performance.
What’s next?
Here at SBOTOP, it’s a busy week as the European football leagues carry on serving up top-class football. In the Premier League the midweek fixtures are rounded off on Wednesday night when league leaders Liverpool travel to Newcastle United while there’s a fascinating London derby as title-chasing Tottenham host strugglers Fulham.
Next up, West Brom host Arsenal on Saturday, January 2nd. It may not be the best time to play the Gunners who have made a shocking start to this season, by their standards, but they showed signs that they were ready to launch their campaign with a Boxing Day 3-1 victory over Chelsea and followed that up by beating Brighton tonight.
Leeds have another classic top-flight fixture to look forward to in this exciting return to the Premier League. They head to Tottenham to face Jose Mourinho’s title hopefuls. Jose likes to set up a team to frustrate so that will be another test of Leeds’ attacking flair.
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