Leeds United 1-0 Watford
It wasn’t always pretty but that doesn’t matter.
At the seventh attempt, Leeds United have a first Premier League win of the season and are up and running.
A rocky start to the season for the Yorkshire club had been compounded a week ago when they suffered more misery with a late defeat at home to West Ham which left them submerged in the relegation zone.
Seven days on at Elland Road though there was to be no repeat as the Whites held onto the lead given them early on through Diego Llorente to seal three priceless points.
Highlights of the game
Llorente’s return was the only change to the side which lost to the Hammers with youngster Charlie Cresswell dropping to the bench.
Of course, Leeds could already count Luke Ayling, Patrick Bamford and Robin Koch among their absentees.
For newly promoted Watford there were two new faces in the starting XI as Ozan Tufan and Francisco Sierralta came in for Craig Cathcart and Tom Cleverley, who had recovered sufficiently from suspected concussion to be named among the substitutes.
The aforementioned rocky road meant the focus was on Marcelo Bielsa as his side lay 18th with just three points after the first six matches, although ‘do not count them out yet’ was the message ahead of kick-off.
They set about proving their detractors wrong from the outset and Watford had little answer as Leeds created Premier League highlights which should have resulted in victory by a bigger margin.
Ben Foster was my man of the match with a string of saves, the first early on as stuck out a boot to prevent Daniel James from following up after initially parrying a Stuart Dallas effort.
Even Foster could not prevent the home side from grabbing the only goal in the 18th minute as a corner from the ever-impressive Raphinha was delivered into the danger zone and the Spanish defender was alert to guide it over the line after the ball bounced off Juraj Kucka at the back post.
Former Man Utd man James possibly should have had a penalty soon afterwards before the side-netting saved Watford as club record signing Rodrigo threaded the ball through to Raphinha who rounded Foster but was forced wide before firing low the wrong side of the net.
There was a reminder that a one goal lead can be fragile as Watford launched a rare attack and Ismaila Sarr – who has netted eight goals in his past 12 league appearances – won possession and fed Ozan Tufan who fired too high from a difficult angle.
All of Leeds’ best moves stemmed from Raphinha whose ball deflected into the path of Mateusz Klich and his volley landed on the top of the net.
The visitors’ cause was not helped by the loss of three players to injury by the 68th minute, the first of which saw striker Joshua King leave the fray in first half stoppage time.
Watford continued to offer little and should have been further behind shortly after the break as Rodrigo’s attempted pass was picked up Dallas who was close to steering the ball into the bottom corner.
Francisco Sierralta was the next Hornets man to leave the pitch as he sustained a knock denying Rodrigo a run on goal.
Despite dominating spells, it was again clear a one goal lead is slender and that was proven when goalkeeper Illan Meslier dropped the ball and it deflected in off Christian Kabasele, only for the Watford defender to be pulled up for committing a foul just seconds earlier.
How Leeds failed to add a second in the closing stages remains a mystery as the otherwise excellent Foster spilled a free-kick but quickly prevented Tyler Robert’s shot follow-up finding the net before the same player smashed another rebound against the crossbar.
Watford have made a decent return to the top flight and remain ahead of Leeds in the table after gaining another point in 1-1 draw at home to Newcastle last weekend.
The SBOTOP Premier League betting odds, though, suggest they will do well to survive. This showing did little to augur well for them.
Key statistics
Leeds have won just two of the past 11 meetings in all competitions.
Watford last won consecutive top-flight away fixtures in September 2017.
They have gone 17 Premier League matches without a clean sheet.
What’s next?
The international break now follows with both sides in action a fortnight today (October 16).
Leeds travel to the south coast to face Southampton, while Watford entertain Liverpool earlier that day.
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