Leeds United are back in the Premier League for the first time in 16 years and, following a dramatic opening day, you'd be forgiven for feeling aggrieved about what the top-flight has been missing over the past decade and a half.
While the Whites returned across the Pennines without points to their name, Marcelo Bielsa's side can certainly hold their heads high after a classic Premier League encounter in the 4-3 defeat to Liverpool.
This was, of course, against the defending league and world champions, a side until who a few weeks ago were also the cream of Europe's crop - and Leeds didn't look out of place at all.
The impact of Leeds has been heavily discussed in the aftermath of the game, with the national press among those issuing plaudits for an incredible performance.
In the Telegraph, Oliver Brown spoke about Leeds' box-office performance, writing: "In his elegantly shambling way, Bielsa is box office. His credentials at this level were proven long ago, through his three domestic titles in Argentina, but even he seemed taken aback by the furious pace with which Liverpool set about his team. When Mo Salah rifled in the fifth goal of the game after just 32 minutes, he could not help but look quizzically at his watch.
"It pays to be reminded sometimes that Bielsa is of legal retirement age. And yet as the goals flew in from all angles at Anfield, the 65-year-old spent much of the first half crouched on his haunches, a posture that would have some men of the same vintage calling for the paramedics. All the country-lane walking that he insists on doing between Wetherby and the Thorp Arch training ground has clearly worked wonders for his fitness.
"He has been submitting himself to the stress of the dugout for longer than he cares to recall. Three decades ago to the day, he was four games into his first job in senior management at Newell’s Old Boys, his childhood club. But he has never lost his obsession with the art of winning, as his creative espionage on Frank Lampard’s Derby County showed only too vividly."
Similar words of praise for Bielsa were issued by Barney Ronay in the Guardian, who penned: "What to make of all this? Most obviously there is a kind of glory in Bielsa announcing himself like this to the Premier League: an ideologue, a barrel-squatting zealot, dishing up a masterclass in his own vision of movement and team play."
Perhaps the best assessment came from his colleague Andy Hunter though, who opened his match report by stating: The Premier League is in for a treat on the evidence of Leeds’ first top-flight appearance for 5,964 days."
Clearly, Bielsa's style of play has made a quick impression upon the Premier League and there is a wealth of excitement around the 37 remaining matches for the Whites this season.
There was, however, one downside to the game, one that neither side could do anything about and, unfortunately, something that will continue to be the norm over the course of the coming weeks and maybe even months.
As Melissa Reddy in the Independent assessed, the absence of supporters for this Premier League classic was sorely missed: "For all the differences in Saturday’s late afternoon kick off, the new season started like the old one: bio-secure, empty stands, socially distanced from the colour, cacophony of voices and the euphoria that would usually frame a fresh beginning.
"It felt a disservice to the scale of the fixture when the teams walked out to no reaction. A sadness filtered through that of all grounds, of all games, of all days - it had to be like this, now, here."
