Leeds United’s valiant, unbeaten run ended after seven matches, but they did not go gently into that good Newcastle night on Wednesday. This was a riotous, thrilling way to bring the curtain down on a five-and-a-half week spell which could come to define their entire season come May.
There have been stingy draws, a high-scoring draw and a couple of Elland Road hidings, but this was Daniel Farke’s Leeds unshackled, intoxicated, for good and bad, by the same, icy Tyneside air which made Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United sides so iconic. On a night which began with sad news about the St James’ Park legend’s cancer diagnosis, this game proved to be a fitting tribute.
Playing their fourth game in 10 days, Leeds went toe to toe with a Champions League outfit on their own patch, where they were unbeaten in 11 outings (including nine wins), and led three times, even taking a 3-2 advantage beyond the 90th minute. Those circumstances make the ultimate loss all the harder to stomach, but that pain cannot be allowed to poison the goodwill and confidence nurtured since the end of November.
Leeds were never going to remain unbeaten until the end of the season. A loss was always going to come and how Farke manages the bubble bursting will be key to ensuring the team does not flip too far the other way and begin stringing losses together.
Speaking during his post-match press conference, the manager feels emboldened by the way his team went down in Newcastle.
“Today, no words will help because everyone is disappointed and heartbroken,” he said. “I prefer, if such an unbeaten run comes to an end, it (ends) in this way, when we play top football, when we go down with flying flags instead of a performance that was not good enough or you had no chance (of winning).
“Tomorrow, we take many positives on it.”
The physical and psychological toll of such a defeat, at the end of a fourth match in 10 days and the longer unbeaten streak which had presumably stretched the players to their limits, may mean a break from the Premier League is welcome. This weekend’s trip to Derby County in the FA Cup will allow Farke to use fringe names like Sam Byram, Jack Harrison and Joel Piroe, while the league regulars can reset their minds and bodies.
Farke does not think his team needs such a reset: “No, we don’t have to reset because the performance was excellent. Mentality was excellent. Many top individual performances. There’s no need for a reset. I want to keep going exactly in this way.”
There are 10 days between the Newcastle and Fulham matches, which gives Farke the space to insulate the feel-good factor which has pushed them eight points away from the relegation zone. Even with the three-point anguish of what could have been, Leeds remain closer to Brighton & Hove Albion in 11th than West Ham United in 18th.
Aaronson scored a brace against Newcastle (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
This had felt like it was going to be Brenden Aaronson’s night. Much in the same way Sunday’s stellar finish against Manchester United was overshadowed by the visitors’ swift response, his killer goals in Newcastle may be forgotten in the chaotic memories of this duel.
The 25-year-old’s redemption arc is emerging as one of the stories of the season. Having begun the campaign on Farke’s bench, he was soon on a run of nine consecutive starts, which saw him become a symbol of the manager’s inability to change tack as results nosedived.
Some time out of the firing line, while Farke refined his five-man defence, allowed the American to find his feet again. The manager cannot resist Aaronson’s work rate and stamina. In a division where technical shortcomings can be bridged by physical output, Aaronson is the pin-up boy.
Final products have been added to Aaronson’s legwork. These two games have presented him with openings you would ordinarily expect him to miss and better players to score, but Aaronson has turned the tables on these moments.
On a night they were underdogs for the win, Leeds had to take their chances when they came on Wednesday. Aaronson’s finishes were unerring and clinical. These were goals you normally associate with the better wide forwards in the Premier League, not Aaronson, whose confidence, backed so faithfully by Farke, is through the roof right now.
As could be heard in the far-off chants of his name from the away end at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere in St James’ Park, the Leeds die-hards are relishing this cinematic pivot from Aaronson.
At the other end, United were unusually porous. Since the pivot to a back five, Leeds have only conceded more than once in a game on one occasion, the Liverpool 3-3 draw at Elland Road.
Joelinton’s header and Bruno Guimaraes’s cross were dripping in quality, but there are questions to be asked of Pascal Struijk’s role in Harvey Barnes’s first-half equaliser and Lucas Perri’s poor attempt to stop the winner. In the case of the latter, Farke had to acknowledge his No 1 should have done better.
Perri’s ongoing issues with distribution, which seemed to result in him opting to throw the ball into the opposition half rather than kick it, on Wednesday, added to a weak palm on Newcastle’s winner, sloppy positioning for Matheus Cunha’s weekend equaliser and older question marks.
One year ago, the FA Cup third round gave Farke a chance to take Illan Meslier out of the firing line. This weekend, he will get a similar chance with Perri as Karl Darlow, presumably, comes in.
The manager was not shy in his criticism of his No 1, but his track record suggests a few more errors will be tolerated before he considers a more lasting change between the sticks. And in that regard, despite the positives from Wednesday, it’s a new year, but the talking points have a familiar flavour.