Nearly There

Leeds Banish The Wembley Demons With A Comprehensive Win Over Pitiful Burnley.

Don't ya know pump it up, the Whites are....nearly safe? Doesn't have quite the same ring, but it'll do for now.

In the last couple of weeks Leeds have shown the sort of form that is expected of title challengers with 10 points from the last 4 games. In fact, the only team to top that are fellow ‘strugglers’, Nottingham Forest. Inexplicably, though, we’re still not safe. Not quite anyway. It’s inexplicable considering that in recent season the 17th placed side would’ve barely had to break 30 points to preserve their Premier League status.

Bounce-back-ability

After the previous weekend's Wembley disappointment against Chelsea - a disappointment exacerbated by how pathetic they were against Forest - it was imperative that Leeds bounced back immediately. A nice, run-of-the-mill win against some absolute no-hopers would do the trick.......

Sad Burnley

Burnley, bless them, haven’t had it easy this season. Our fellow Championship graduates must wonder why they even bother. Another miserable top flight season where they’ve failed to make any sort of inroads, and with only a few games left, the wheels are not only off, but are non-existent (if they ever existed at all). Their ‘beloved’ manager (beloved enough by the players for them to write gushing eulogies about him on social media, but not beloved enough for them to actually bother running), Scott Parker, has already fled the sinking ship, the fans have given up, and another season back in the Championship awaits. They’ll probably relish being back amongst their kind, winning games, scoring goals; it's got to be better than this.

A Stroll in the Park

Pre-game angst, especially when the stakes are high, is as consistent as gravity at Elland Road. In recent years we’ve struggled against Burnley; last season, as we went neck and neck for the title, we failed to win, or even score against them, and this year our loss at Turf Moor was an early low moment many thought we wouldn’t recover from. Now, though? We needn’t have been so concerned. Burnley’s race is run, and they played as such. An early Stach goal calmed any nerves, before 2 goals in quick succession in the 2nd half from Okafor and Calvert-Lewin saw the game put beyond doubt. Burnley pulled one back simply because Leeds let them. Consider it a parting gift. Hopefully this time they have the decency to just stay in the championship. And to be fair, only the darkest masochists amongst their fans will be hoping for another promotion.

Cockney Favours

The win sees Leeds a comfortable 7 points above 18th place West Ham - who lost 3-0 to Brentford and saw Spurs beat a scandalously poor Villa to leap frog them into 17th. West Ham will rightly feel aggrieved at how bad Villa, who clearly had both eyes on their Europa League tie with Forest, were. They’ll be hoping for us to do them a massive favour against Spurs - something I’d be very happy to do. We all want Spurs to go down; not because we hate Spurs per se - it would just be funny.

Nearly There

By the time we travel down to Spurs' 80,000 seater stadium of sadness, our season could be all but done. If West Ham lose to Arsenal then we can no longer be caught. I know at this point it’s unlikely anyway, but with such cynical support, some fans need to see to believe. I don’t blame them. Frankly, I'll be stunned if we go to Spurs without our safety 100% guaranteed. Arsenal will be buoyed by the fact that their destiny is back in their hands, and even they, the Premier Leagues’ perennial bridesmaids, surely can’t bottle it from here……