By Daniel Feliciano

22nd Aug, 2022 | 6:40pm

Richard Keys reacts to Leeds United 'great' win over Chelsea, agrees with Thomas Tuchel

Richard Keys has suggested that Leeds were lucky to beat Chelsea 3-0 on Sunday afternoon, rather than stylistically outplaying them.

The Whites claimed a dominant win thanks to goals from Brenden Aaronson, Rodrigo and Jack Harrison, to take them to seven points after three games and maintain their unbeaten start to the season.

But Keys, writing on his blog, has admitted that he agrees with Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel who felt that the result had nothing to do with what Leeds did well and everything to do with what the visitors did wrong.

“For some the fact that Leeds ran 11k further than Chelsea explained why they won. Nonsense,” he said.

“I get it – so much emphasis is placed on stats and sports science these days that it’s inevitable these measures will keep coming up. Ten Months had United running all last Sunday to get near to the figures Brentford produced. But not covering kms wasn’t why United lost to them.

“I’m with Tuchel. ‘It was nothing to do with pressing,’ he said. ‘Nothing to do with running less kms and nothing to do with the style of Leeds.

“I don’t see that an own goal and a set-piece are anything to do with style’. Spot on.

“And let’s not forget Chelsea should’ve been two up before Leeds had barely had a sniff of the ball. Leeds wouldn’t have covered anything like the distance that they did then.

“But it was a great win. And Elland Road is a brilliant arena when it’s full and jumping like it was.

“Marsch might just have started to win Leeds’ fans over. I certainly hope so. I said before the season started that I like the guy – but I know I’m in the minority with that view.”

Credit

How about some credit for the team who outworked their opponent for 90 minutes and scored three goals while keeping a clean sheet?

No Leeds fan is obtuse enough to think they had the better of the game for the entire 90 minutes, and they could potentially count themselves lucky to not have been behind when Raheem Sterling was marginally offside.

However not giving them credit for forcing the goalkeeper to panic and lose possession in his own six yard box leading to the opening goal, and a well worked free-kick routine which got a second is simply bizarre.

Could Chelsea have done better? Absolutely. But so could every team that concedes goals from a defensive point of view.

The fact of the matter is that over the course of the game Leeds were by far the better team and definitely deserved the win and the three points that came with it.

In other Leeds news, Don Goodman praises “creative force” for what he did vs Chelsea