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These clubs graduated from the Championship together last season, but now they seem like separate worlds. Leeds have enriched the Premier League with an exciting style that few teams can rival, least of all West Brom, who came into this game hoping to build on Sunday’s honorable draw with Liverpool but found themselves outmatched by royalty.
The scoring started with a ridiculous own goal by Romaine Sawyers, but then Leeds gave a fascinating display of intense and imaginative attack. To witness it was to feel encouraged. Unless, of course, you support West Brom. Or manage them.
This was billed as a meeting of minds unlike any seen before in the top flight, with cartoons depicting the confrontation between Marcelo Bielsa and Sam Allardyce comparable to Don Quixote v Don Corleone. As false as it may be, there is no question that managers promote different views. But Allardyce, who is still evaluating what he has inherited at the Hawthorns, couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw his team lag behind after nine minutes.
Sawyers received the ball from 25 yards and was apparently flustered when two Leeds players attacked him. He turned around and played the ball blind to where he guessed his goalkeeper would be. But Sam Johnstone was standing several feet to the left of the goal and he and Sawyers could only watch in horror as the ball rolled into the unprotected net.
After Jake Livermore’s red card in Allardyce’s first home game in charge, 3-0 loss to Aston Villa, and Matheus Pereira’s expulsion in Slaven Bilic’s last home game, the 5 -1 against Crystal Palace, this was an absurd new way of being. -destruction by West Brom.
“It’s a big hit when something like this happens, particularly with the position we’re in, you start thinking ‘oh no, what’s next?'” Allardyce said.
That goal highlighted the contrast. While West Brom seemed slow and confused, Leeds was wonderfully in sync. With Kalvin Philipps directing in midfield, Leeds passed, dribbled and lunged around the stunned hosts.
The few doubts about the outcome disappeared shortly after half an hour when Ezgjan Alioski slammed a fierce shot into the net after the ball reached the edge of the area.
Leeds scored two more goals before half-time, each a collectively created masterpiece. First, Jack Harrison took a pass from Alioski down the left and slid across the box to cut through the heart of the West Brom defense, playing a one-two with Patrick Bamford before artistically switching the ball to his left foot and lifting it over. Darnell Furlong. and Johnstone and on the roof of the net. Leeds’ fourth came four minutes later and five before the break thanks to a fluid movement down the right. Bamford returned the ball to Rodrigo, whose 20-yard play benefited from a deflection by Dara O’Shea to leave Johnstone defenseless.
At least the West Brom keeper was able to prevent Leeds from making it 5-0 before the break, Johnstone lunged to his right to deflect a shot from Raphinha.
All West Brom could muster as a threat was a corner kick that Illan Meslier tore awkwardly tore apart, plus a pair of crosses meant to exploit the absence of Leeds’ first-choice center-backs.
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West Brom came out in the second half on a mission to save some dignity and did a good job of slowing down the flow of Leeds. Until the 72nd minute, when they were dazzled by another magical goal, Raphinha rushed in off the line after a beautiful one-touch interaction to double a left-leg shot from the edge of the box into the top corner.
“We have only been in this league for 16 games, so there are still many challenges and tests to overcome before we can legitimately say that we belong,” said Bielsa.
West Brom belongs back to the Championship according to the evidence from the season so far. The scale of the rescue mission Allardyce faces is becoming clearer.
“I was surprised to see such a poor performance,” he said. Consistency is everything now, in the way we defend and attack. We have to try to strike the right balance.
“Life will get even more difficult unless we start to improve very quickly. January is approaching, from what I have seen so far and in the past, that will refresh the team to play better ”.
