Key events
Half-time: Leeds 2-0 West Ham
Grim viewing for West Ham, dreadful as the game began but better as the half went. Leeds still full of danger but may yet rue not scoring another. They will get further chances, though; this Hammers team guarantees that.
45+13 min: The half close down with Wan-Bissaaka, far more comfortable on the right, throwing in a couple of challenges. He’s a fine defender, maybe use him where he’s best.
45+12 min: Soucek, at last, gets forward, and Bowen finds him but this time the header is wide, he just couldn’t get over it. Better from West Ham, they can still rescue something with the attacking talent they have. The defence may be a different matter.
45+10 min: Only three more minutes of surely the longest first half of the Premier League season. Nearly an hour of a horror show for West Ham, more miserable than an Eastenders double header.
Bogle, on the burst, forces a save on the near post from Areola, who has earned his corner. But also earns a corner. This one is aimed at Rodon but cleared.
45+8 min: More panic from the Hammers as Calvert-Lewin hounds Kilman into a backpass to Areola, and the hurried kick almost comes straight back at him.
45+7 min: Peter Oh is in: “I don’t know if this quite nails it, but West Ham’s ongoing woes remind of the saying ‘When all you have is a Hammer, everything looks like a smashed thumb’.”
45+5 min: Jeers as Paqueta wafts over the bar. Soucek, who usually joins the attack, is sat far too deep. He’s not the most adept defensive midfielder. Paqueta takes out his frustration by smashing into Tanaka.
45+3 min: West Ham fans boo as Kilman dithers; on their next attack, it’s Okafor on the escape, and he zings a shot wide, the former Napoli and Milan man.
45+2 min: Leeds go close again, Aaronson’s ball in Calvert-Lewin’s vicinity. But not close enough.
45 min: Bad news for those filing match reports: 13 (thirteen) added minutes for the first half. Unlucky for some.
42 min: Kari Tulinius gets in touch: “Maybe Graham Potter wasn’t the problem. After his exploits at Forest, Nuno’s star shines bright in the football firmament, but if he can find a coherent team in his squad before Christmas, it’ll be miraculous.”
James Justin will replace Gudmudnsson, the former Leicester player is a capable outlet. A one-cap wonder, though injuries prevented more.
40 min: Summerville crashes in and Longstaff is felled. That’s a booking that receives loud cheers from the home fans. Gudmundsson meanwhile is limping. He goes down, and asks for the physio. There’s going to be plenty of time added on.
39 min: An Ethan Ampadu gallop ends up with him seeing glory and shooting. He misses but that begs the question: how is he still 25? Feels like he has been around forever.
37 min: Long ball pumped forward, Rodon can’t clear the danger, and Jarrod Bowen, coming into the game at last, fires wide of the goal.
West Ham goal disallowed
36 min: Paqueta smashes in after Bogle’s clearance comes off Wilson. A neat finish, smashed home. The home crowd silenced, then jeers as the flag goes up. The lines come out in Stockley Park…will it stand? It’s tight as the proverbial. Semi-automated offside still jiggered – in AWS we trust – so it’s back to the diagrams. It takes well over two minutes to deny the Hammers. But good process from the linesman.
33 min: Summerville, the former Leeds player, is being booed on every touch by the locals.
31 min: Leeds first to every ball, the accelerator still being pressed as they try to kill off the game and open a gap on the Hammers. It takes Kilman to stop Aaronson stealing in on Okafor’s cross.
30 min: Sweeping Leeds move, backed by loud noise, it’s started by Longstaff and finished by Tanaka smashing over. The tails are up.
29 min: Leeds have been good, let’s credit them. Farke has planned this well. Set piece delivery is important these days, always was, despite Sean Dyche’s skinny jeans schtick.
27 min: A glimmer of hope for West Ham as Wilson looks dangerous then the clownery resumes as Diouf backheels the ball off the field.
25 min: The action resumes, Wilson playing his first minutes of the Nuno regime.
Justin K is back: “Are you sure Wan Bissaka is playing at left-back (min 1)? He looked more like a spectator there. Leeds should charge him the ticket price in.”
Tim Stappard gets in touch: “I think Frankfurt is more an electronic music place. Probably suits his bouncing capabilities better.” I’ve seen Kraftwerk play in Frankfurt but I have also seen Iron Maiden and attended a rather good rock bar by the Rhine.
23 min: Scarles goes off, and looks to be taking on oxygen. Looked like one of those collarbone injuries you see in cycling. He is to be wished well.
21 min: A lengthy delay as poor Scarles is tended to. Ian Sargeant steps in to say: “Having attended Mondays game and spent the first half wondering what the hell inverted full backs bring to a formation im more than a touch irritated to be asking the same bloody question. You’ve got two pretty decent right backs in the squad. Why play your second choice left back there – and your first choice right back at left back.
“There’s a book on my shelf – The Art of Captaincy by Mike Brearley in which he says never weaken a strength to strengthen a weakness.
“Nuno – take heed.”
19 min: Sean Longstaff’s corner was a pearler. Meanwhile, young Scarles is hurt, on the end of a cruncher from Rodon. He looks in pain, like he damaged his collar bone. Callum Wilson is warming up and will come in. Looks like a rejig. Scarles comes off, and Wan-Bissaka will go back to the right. Long discussion with Nuno before Wilson comes on.
17 min: Justin Kavanagh gets in touch: “Both of these teams’ managers look like they could have walked out of a monastery and exchanged their monk’s habit for a tracksuit. That beard on Dominic Calvert-Lewin also looks a bit monastic to me. Let’s hope the football tonight is charitably entertaining and rises above any vows of poverty.”
Nuno looks like he is considering taking orders. Could be for the best. Daniel Farke has the look of a bouncer at a Frankfurt rock club.
16 min: Nuno has arms crossed on the touchline. He looks bereft. So does his team. Ugly scenes.
Goal! Leeds 2-0 West Ham (Rodon, 15)
Dear me. Too easy. Rodon climbs highest, Paqueta not bothering to challenge him and nod home.
13 min: Longstaff presses Wan-Bissaka hard and almost creates a chance for Aaronson but the ball is cleared by that panicky Hammers defence. Scarles, who is being chased, almost plays Kilman into trouble. Eventually, more pressure on Scarles wins a Leeds corner.
12 min: We’ve already heard the first chorus of “sack the board” from the Hammers fans. Not a fun trip up the M1 or on the rattler from Kings Cross for them so far.
10 min: Perri justifies his selection with a fine save from Summerville, righting himself to make it a double save. Leeds do look a bit open. There could be something in this for the Hammers.
9 min: Ethan Ampadu is down now. The culprit was the finger of Stuart Atwell, in his eye. Ampadu is asked to leave the field, and he’s in a sour mood as he does so. Looked a bookable offence from Attwell. VAR to be called in?
8 min: Can Nuno last longer than Ange did in replacing him? The signs so far are not positive.
6 min: Andy Irving is the recipient of a nasty baulk from Tanaka, which was probably an accident though looked careless. Irving will require stitching up. The goal came from Bogle’s cross, and Ampadu’s header and Aaronson being first to pounce.
4 min: Was Calvert-Lewin in the way of Areola? No, says the VAR, so goal is awarded. West Ham were all over the show.
Goal! Leeds 1-0 West Ham (Aaronson, 3)
It was a scramble, dreadful defending from West Ham, Scarles beaten at the far post, Areola makes a save but Aaronson smashes in the rebound.
We are go at Elland Road
1 min: Wan Bissaka is playing at left-back, with Scarles, the teenager, at right-back. Nuno has rolled the dice there.
Before kick-off, the players take the knee. That receives boos…not great.
With Leeds not at home until after the next international break, there’s a remembrance ceremony being held, with a lone trumpeter ringing out and a poppy montage on the big screen. Huge applause at a packed Elland Road as that comes to its end.
Nuno also spoke to Sky: ““I expect good performances. That’s why we have players and options on the bench, but also in the game we can adapt. Individuals duels. This week was a short period, but the message is there. Recovering them well – when you don’t win the recovery takes long. I think the boys are ready.”
More Daniel Farke, speaking to Sky, and an explanation of his goalkeeping selection: “First of all, we have to say Karl Darlow is always reliable and done a really solid job when we needed him. We make no secret out of it that we have signed [Lucas] Perri as number one. Overall we had a difficult week. We had a few players struggling with a few physical problems. We tried to find a good mix. We cannot afford to play without all of them.
Andy Irving is a cult hero at West Ham. Ironically so far, though the club are calling out for a hero who isn’t called Jarrod Bowen.
Four changes for Leeds. Lucas Perri starts in goal, Jaka Bijol, Noah Okafor and Ao Tanaka in for Karl Darlow, Pascal Struijk, Anton Stach and Jack Harrison, all benched. Darlow actually played OK v Burnley so that one is something of a shock decision.
Nobody played OK for West Ham on Monday but only two changes made, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and El Hadji Malick Diouf in for Kyle Walker-Peters and Mateus Fernandes, one summer signing in, two out. Which says a lot for the summer business.
Will Unwin
t is a chilly night at Elland Road as Leeds enter a very difficult period of the season. They lost last time out at Burnley and their November fixtures see them travel to Brighton, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City, with their only home clash coming against Aston Villa. This feels like a game Leeds need to win, having not secured maximum points in over a month.
West Ham are in a relegation battle and Nuno Espirito Santo knows it. This looks a poor side short on confidence and he needs to return things around quickly. There were positive signs in his first game in charge at Everton but losses to Arsenal and Brentford will have done little to boost the confidence. A big win under the lights tonight could ignite his tenure.
The teams
Leeds: Lucas Perri, Bogle, Rodon, Bijol, Gudmundsson, Longstaff, Ampadu, Tanaka, Aaronson, Calvert-Lewin, Okafor. Subs: Darlow, Gruev, Justin, Harrison, Stach, Nmecha, Piroe, James, Struijk.
West Ham: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Kilman, Scarles, Soucek, Bowen, Irving, Summerville, Diouf, Lucas Paqueta. Subs: Marshall, Potts, Magassa, Rodriguez, Fernandes, Wilson, Igor, Walker-Peters, Hermansen.
Referee: Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire)
Daniel Farke’s pre-match thoughts:
“I didn’t like their game on Monday because after such a game they will be even more determined. They have a very experienced approach.
“There is no added pressure. At this level, every game has pressure, and so far we have played huge games. We look forward to these games and it’s why we have worked our socks off in the last 24 months.
“It’s always important for newly established Premier League sides to make their home a fortress. If you look at the teams who have survived, they had really good home records, which is what we want to do.
“Therefore, he wants his side to start quickly: “We need to be good in our pressing and to play as dominant as possible.”
Some Nuno quotes from his pre-match press conference.
“It is up to us to connect the fans. It is up to us that the fans go to the stadium and see something they enjoy. It is on our side.
“They were rushing their decisions. I see them work every day. We have quality and talent to make five-yard passes, but they were not happening. It is up to us to tell the players to play their game, try to ignore [outside noise] and focus on what is happening on the pitch.
“It is us who is going to solve our problems. Us who is in the building, not us who is outside. We must solve our own problems.
“We have to improve our players. We need to improve their fitness, tactical awareness – everything. We concede a lot of set-pieces – too many – but we defend them pretty well. We are improving on that but we need to improve on not conceding. Some of them are easy situations we can solve.”
Last time out: not pretty for either team.
This is the predicament both teams find themselves in.
Preamble
A six pointer? Or a six pinter? West Ham were absolutely awful on Monday against Brentford and there was an air of circling the drain at the London Stadium. They face a Leeds team circling the bottom three, kicking off in 16th. Last week at Burnley was a disappointment, and have only beaten basement club since the opening day of the season. Then again, those are the games they need to win. It could be grim viewing, but let’s look on the bright side, it could be fun.
Kick off at 8pm at Elland Road. Join me.
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