TUCH OF TROUBLE
Leeds 3 Chelsea 0: Blues MAULED as Aaronson, Rodrigo and Harrison stun Tuchel’s men and Koulibaly is sent off
MARCELO who?
Most Leeds fans were in mourning when Marcelo Bielsa was pushed out of Elland Road in February.
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Some hardened Yorkshiremen wept while they even renamed a pub after him and up here, tributes do not come much better than that.
But the boozer is back to its old name, the Peacock, and it is now a brave, new world under Jesse Marsch.
The jury has been out on the American coach but what a start he is having.
Two wins and a draw including this terrific and fully deserved win over shambolic Chelsea.
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How Leeds fans relished this moment against one of the teams they love to hate.
Rodrigo made it four goals from three which is not bad for a bloke who has spent most of his time in England as the odd man out at Elland Road.
But revived under Marsch, Rodrigo is a central forward currently on fire - which is exactly what Chelsea need.
The £27million signing from Valencia, having scored just 13 goals in his first two years at Leeds, has become just the fourth Leeds player to score in their first three top-flight matches in a season.
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This is after Arthur Hydes in 1933-34, Mick Jones in 1968-69 and Patrick Bamford in 2020-21.
And although Bamford is once again injured, Rodrigo could be their new talisman.
In a dark afternoon for Chelsea, Rodrigo scored the second in a rousing win for Leeds.
Brenden Aaronson got the first after a holwer by keeper Edu Mendy before Rodrigo made it 2-0.
In a move started by Rodrigo, Jack Harrison got the third to send Chelsea spinning to their first defeat of the season and they can have few complaints.
They had a few chances early on but the Blues were without direction and at times, players squaballed between themselves.
Leeds signed Rodrigo but Marcelo Bielsa generally played him out of position and it is only since Marsch arrived that his role has changed.
Chelsea started well enough. Raheem Sterling came close to scoring first after 40 seconds with an effort which flashed wide and when the England international thought he had scored, the linesman’s flag was raised.
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Leeds were causing a few problems down the left and this prompted a heated conversation with Reece James and Thiago Silva.
Yet about 30 seconds later, you can only imagine what they thought of Mendy.
The Chelsea keeper got himself into a complete mess when dealing with a back pass from Silva and failed to release the ball quick enough.
Mendy then twisted and turned into more danger and Aaronson had the simple task of plucking the ball from his feet to tap into an empty net.
And it soon got worse. Sterling can consider himself unlucky for getting booked for a challenge on Marc Roca and from Jack Harrison’s free-kick Rodrigo got in front of James to deliver a brilliant glancing header.
Leeds continued to play with confidence in the second half, Harrison got past James with some brilliant skill to send a huge roar from all four stands.
Conor Gallagher was making his full debut for Chelsea but he struggled throughout and was substituted just after the hour. Do not be surprised if he is sent back out on loan.
But it just got worse for Chelsea soon after when Harrison stuck out a leg to score when Rodrigo - who started the move - failed to control Dan James’ cross.
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The afternoon then got worse for Kalidou Koulibaly with six minutes left for earning a second yellow card for a silly foul on Joe Gelhardt.
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This completed a bad day for Thomas Tuchel but the only consolation is that Roman Abramovich is no longer the owner.
After performances and results like this, the Russian was known for getting a bit twitchy.
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