Here’s the match report. Thanks for reading today.
Marcelo Bielsa speaks to BT Sport.
It’s true in the first half we defended well, and in the second half, we didn’t defend as well but we were efficient and had chances at goal. When there’s big spaces it’s easier to attack, when the opponent is loosing they take more risks. But as you can also see we composed more chances in the second half. Rodrigo drops a little deeper than Pat [Bamford]. And in the beginning of the second half we needed to link more the defence with the attack.
Two-goal Leeds sriker Rodrigo speaks to the BBC:
Beautiful goal, the first one, good pass from Jack [Harrison], it was a tight space but found a way to get the advantage and get the goal. We have an amazing group, good atmosphere during the week, the whole season was amazing for us after we got promoted last season. Very happy for the team and for the club and I hope the fans are proud of us this season.
Jack Harrison, scorer of one goal, supplier of two, speaks to BT Sport.
My goal was a bit lucky but as a team we can we be happy. I meant to direct it at goal. I thought I might be offside. Two class finished from [Rodrigo]. We found it difficult at first to play out. After that we settled down and played our game. Both players [Rodrigo and Bamford] are class and bring a lot to the team, we played well with both players. We are always ambitious. It’s been a good season, and we are hoping to finish strongly. Kalvin is a class player. Some of the passes he made were excellent. He’s a great addition for us.
Updated
David, it’s over to you.
@JohnBrewin_ watching Alioski making faces, all I could think of was, "Squires will do something with that"
— Dave Hill (@DaveHil91323632) May 15, 2021
The table: Leeds comfortably in tenth. Burnley comfortable, too, despite their horrendous home form.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 36 | 47 | 83 |
| 2 | Man Utd | 36 | 28 | 70 |
| 3 | Leicester | 36 | 21 | 66 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 36 | 22 | 64 |
| 5 | Liverpool | 35 | 20 | 60 |
| 6 | West Ham | 35 | 10 | 58 |
| 7 | Tottenham Hotspur | 35 | 20 | 56 |
| 8 | Everton | 35 | 4 | 56 |
| 9 | Arsenal | 36 | 12 | 55 |
| 10 | Leeds | 36 | 4 | 53 |
| 11 | Aston Villa | 35 | 8 | 49 |
| 12 | Wolverhampton | 35 | -12 | 45 |
| 13 | Crystal Palace | 35 | -22 | 41 |
| 14 | Southampton | 35 | -18 | 40 |
| 15 | Burnley | 36 | -18 | 39 |
| 16 | Newcastle | 36 | -19 | 39 |
| 17 | Brighton | 35 | -5 | 37 |
| 18 | Fulham | 35 | -22 | 27 |
| 19 | West Brom | 35 | -36 | 26 |
| 20 | Sheff Utd | 35 | -44 | 17 |
Full-time: Burnley 0-4 Leeds United
Four excellent goals from a team flushed with confidence, and Rodrigo’s cameo at the end adding real gloss. Burnley played well at the start of both halves, only to be carved open. A handshake between Sean Dyche and Marcelo Bielsa at the end. The best team won. Leeds go up to 53 points.
90+2 min: Tyler Roberts on a surge, and whacks one at goal when space opens up. Peacock-Farrell makes the save.
90 min: Heavy touch from Jay Rodriguez when he might have been in on goal. Three minutes of time added on to be played.
88 min: Rodrigo for the hat-trick? No, lovely pass from the flanks, and Rodrigo hits it wide under heavy pressure from Charlie Taylor. A brief look from VAR to see if a foul had been committed. It hadn’t, but neither had he touched the ball. A corner is still given, despite VAR knowing it wasn’t? Confused? You will be.
87 min: Burnley still piling it on. No faulting their commitment, though the defending has not been up to scratch.
85 min: More Burnley attacking, perhaps in an attempt to quell the Dyche growl in the dressing room. For a brief period, Meslier was flapping under a high ball. But claimed it eventually.
84 min: A chance for Burnley! The ball is nodded down for Tarkowski who loops the ball over the bar. Not a good finish, and redolent of a poor afternoon for Burnley. Then Ashley Barnes goes close. Too little, too late from Burnley.
81 min: Leeds sub: Raphina off, Poveda on. Nice time to come on.
80 min: Two minutes and seven seconds between those goals. Have Leeds really been four goals better than Burnley? It seems harsh but quality has really told.
Goal! Burnley 0-4 Leeds (Rodrigo, 79)
Another great goal! Kalvin Phillips plays the ball wide, and then Harrison cues up Rodrigo, whose finish is again cool, calm and collected.
Updated
78 min: And Marcelo Bielsa really enjoyed that one. That’s the quality that Leeds can provide. Burnley cut in two by three bits of great play.
Goal! Burnley 0-3 Leeds (Rodrigo, 77)
A fine goal! Such great control from a slide-rule pass from Jack Harrison that bisected Burnley’s defence, and a nice, calm finish as well.
Updated
76 min: Leeds sub: Tyler Roberts comes on Mateusz Klich.
74 min: Gudmundsson forces Meslier into another save from long range, perhaps his best yet. The young goalkeeper has been outstanding, as he has all season.
73 min: There’s a discussion taking place on the sidelines, with the fourth official and the referee calling over both managers for a talking to. Has something been said? Now Luke Ayling is called over. What was it for? It seems that Alioski was making funny faces at the bench and riled up Sean Dyche. That will be gifable, as the kids say.
71 min: And off goes Dwight McNeil, who has been quiet, and Jóhann Berg Gudmundsson replaces him. Sean Dyche may be saving his players for the grand gal event with Liverpool.
68 min: Funny thing, Dyche taking off Vydra who had looked good and threatening. Was he not tempted to field all four strikers for the laugh? He could play looky-likey with Ossie Ardiles.
67 min: Bogdan Kotarlic gets in touch. “Football is often very strange: Brighton have played well this season and still they have three points less than Burnley who have played so-so in the same period.”
Sean Dyche likes this.
65 min: Westwood booked for a foul on Raphina. There’s a touch of afters too, but all is calmed down.
Off comes the Burnley strikeforce: Wood and Vydra go off, and on come Ashley Barnes and Jay Rodriguez.
64 min: Westwood has another shot for Burnley from the edge of the area. Well wide, and Leeds are keeping their opponents at arm’s length.
63 min: Kalvin Phillips is booked for a lunge on Vydra. It’s a deserved one, too. He’d let the ball run away from him.
61 min: That was a neat goal, though not celebrated by Harrison, which is odd because that was excellent. Perhaps he’s a closet Burnley fan.
Goal! Burnley 0-2 Leeds (Harrison, 60)
Against the run of play, though Leeds had stepped it up. Alioski shoots from the edge of the box, and it’s going wide but Jack Harrison’s improv directs it past Peacock-Farrell.
Updated
58 min: Tarkowski comes across to stop a pass arrowing towards Bamford. At the other end, Chris Wood finds space, spins and shoots wide. Burnley playing well.
Leeds make a chance: on comes Rodrigo for Bamford, whose chance to impress Gareth Southgate is gone for this afternoon. He had a quiet day.
Updated
56 min: Vydra does well, spins and then has a one-on-one with Meslier, who wins that battle with a good save. Good play all round.
55 min: Leeds look to be content to pass the ball around at the back. They’ve been patient, picking their moments to attack.
53 min: Bamford catches Ben Mee with a loose foot. There’s an apology and play continues. He’s made of stern stuff is Ben Mee.
51 min: Clad in woolly hat, Bielsa is back in the dugout. He would get too wet if he sat on the bucket. Burnley get a corner. That’s cleared but eventually it comes to Westwood who lashes one right-footed, but wide.
49 min: A slowish start to the half. Leeds can take a while to warm up.
47 min: Free-kick to Burnley after a nudge by Ayling on Wood. It causes a bit of chaos, and Brownhill and Jack Cork both fail to make contact.
46 min: Back underway, and Sean Dyche and Marcelo Bielsa both make their purposeful way to their benches. It is tipping down in Burnley. Dyche has put on a kagool, albeit one that looks quite expensive, and Bielsa has put a hat on.
Half-time: Burnley 0-1 Leeds
On the balance of play, that’s the scoreline that the first half deserved. Leeds have stepped up and up and Klich’s goal, on the break when Burnley made a fairly rare foray forward, was well taken. Marcelo Bielsa certainly enjoyed it.
Updated
45+2 min: Tarkowski is foul by Strujk and it’s a Burnley free-kick on the left-hand edge of the box. Westwood sends it in and Meslier is equal to the task. And that’s half-time.
45+1 min: Two minutes added on.
45 min: Had that goal been coming? Yes, it had. It was a lovely finish, and Burnley paid for leaving space for Leeds to step into.
Updated
Goal! Burnley 0-1 Leeds (Klich, 44)
A spell of Burnley pressure with Taylor again to the fore. Llorente has been great in defence, and clears the danger once more. Up the other end, Klich breaks, finding space and he pings a shot past Peacock-Farrell as Burnley back off him. Great goal on the counter.
Updated
42 min: Good ball for Vydra and he’s on the spin, but Meslier reads the danger.
40 min: The ball is launched off-field by Burnley, as if to win territory in the fashion of rugby union. At the moment, they need some kind of pressure release.
38 min: Burnley’s bright start now a memory. Chris Wood has seen very little of the ball. Leeds go close again. Bamford steps over the ball, and leaves it for Raphina but a deflection forces him into a flying volley. That flies over. But Leeds are knocking on the door. Sean Dyche though has a Cheshire Cat smile on his face. It may well be a sarcastic smile.
36 min: Another Leeds corner as the pressure is ratcheted up. This time it’s wasted as Struijk concedes a foul just as he was getting to the ball.
34 min: Taxi for Alioski! Raphina serves him the ball on a plate and he shoots wide. So wide it goes off for a throw. Bielsa kicks the bucket, literally.
33 min: Ben Mee steps forward, as Burnley push on. But Llorente intervenes to set up a Leeds attack. They have found more of their flow as the game has gone on.
31 min: Best chance so far! Struijk climbs above Vydra in the Burnley box and heads wide. He might have done better and Bielsa does not look impressed.
Updated
30 min: Half an hour in and it’s no classic, not so devil may care as that game between Newcastle and Manchester last night. But...Charlie Taylor puts in a fine tackle to stop the threat of a rapidly advancing Raphina.
29 min: Some hold-up play from Vydra that Mark Hughes would have been proud of, holding off four men.
28 min: Another corner, taken short, then Klich and Raphina attempt to pump the ball into the danger area, Lowton nods behind for another corner. Brownhill gets that clear.
26 min: It’s a Leeds free-kick after a foul by McNeil, and Raphina takes, failing to beat the first man. Leeds retain possession, before Lowton nods off for another corner.
24 min: Llorente is down, and winded. That was a hefty blow to his back. He is fine to continue but may be sore in the morning.
23 min: Dallas gets in range, and McNeil gets in the way to deflect it from danger. From the corner, Llorente takes a knee in the back from a flailing Tarkowski.
21 min: Darting run by Charlie Taylor to the byline, and he chips up the ball. Meslier claims ahead of Chris Wood.
20 min: The pace of the early skirmishes has abated somewhat. We might just be settling into a late-season groove, as the players dream of the beaches of Skegness, Mablethorpe and Tenby, all of which are on the green list.
18 min: Free-kick to Burnley, and in Dwight McNeil’s range, which is a long way out. But instead, Ashley Westwood takes, and Chris Wood concedes a foul for baulking Meslier in the Leeds goal.
16 min: The TV commentator tells me that Burnley have won none of their last eight home games. And yet they have stayed up with three games to go. Remember, their star signing of the summer was Dale Stephens. Fans in next week, perhaps that may make a change. By the start of next season, will fans still be allowed back in? Afraid to say that probably relies on husbandry of the Indian variant.
14 min: Tarkowski steps forward, Beckenbauer for the day. There are signs of Sean Dyche letting his team off the leash.
12 min: Leeds stepping it up after that woozy start. That’s the power of a Bielsa rant. The topknots are now blowing in the wind as they speed around the pitch.
Updated
11 min: A Leeds attack, as Klich surges forward, and then Bamford loses the ball, then wins it back with a sliding challenge on James Tarkowski, before getting a shot in. Peacock-Farrell saves it well.
9 min: Scratch that: Bielsa is having one hell of a rant from his plastic bucket. He is not happy at all.
8 min: Sean Dyche, suited up as ever, growls on the sidelines. Bielsa is impassive yet looks agitated. His team have not been very good so far.
6 min: Seems like Sean Dyche has decided that he is going to show that his team will press as hard as a Marcelo Bielsa team.
5 min: Another Burnley attack, as Brownhill pings a shot wide. Leeds seem a tad woozy, as if they’ve been overdoing the Whyte and Mackay.
4 min: Burnley are ‘at it’. But Meslier claims the corner well.
Updated
3 min: Burnley have a corner, and Patrick Bamford heads away when Chris Wood was lurking. McNeil fizzes the ball back in and there’s some hurried defending from Leeds. Then Vydra is tackled for another corner.
1 min: Away we go in East Lancashire, the scene behind the stands redolent of a Hovis ad, though the original Hovis Mill was in Macclesfield, fact fans. I know this because my mum lives opposite. Anyway, on with the show.
The teams are out at Turf Moor, and two of the hardest-working teams in show business get ready to take each other on.
Marcelo Bielsa also has a quick word.
The game we played at home was a very tough game for us to win. We won but they could easily had drawn.
Star Leeds man Stuart Dallas also speaks.
Expecting a tight game it was a really tough game earlier in the season. They play with a style as well as the set pieces and long balls and they are good at what they do. We have shown if we are not 100 percent focused we will get turned over. I think people want us to burn put but the Premier League is a bit easier for us than the Championship. It’s one game a week for us at the moment.
Sean Dyche has a quick word.
It allows that little bit of a pressure release and there’s more flexibility in the thinking. It’s been tight this last few games but we got that win against Fulham.
And they met in the Premier League earlier this season.
These teams last met at Turf Moor in the top division of English football in 1975, a 1-0 win for Leeds, the goal scored by the late Trevor Cherry. Later that same season, Leeds win 2-1 at Elland Road, their goals scored by Duncan McKenzie and Peter Hampton, who also died last year.
Updated
Liam Cooper is back in the Leeds squad, having sat out the last four matches, but he will have to settle for a place on the bench.
Burnley make one change from that crucial win at Fulham, as Bailey Peacock-Farrell replaces the injured Nick Pope in goal.
For Leeds, in come Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha in place of Robin Koch and Tyler Roberts after last week’s defeat of Tottenham.
Here are the teams
Burnley: Peacock-Farrell, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor, Brownhill, Westwood, Cork, McNeil, Vydra, Wood. Subs: Gudmundsson, Barnes, Rodriguez, Pieters, Norris, Nartey, Dunne, Richardson.
Leeds: Meslier, Ayling, Llorente, Struijk, Alioski, Phillips, Raphinha, Dallas, Klich, Harrison, Bamford. Subs: Cooper, Poveda-Ocampo, Roberts, Casilla, Rodrigo, Davis, Berardi, Shackleton, Jenkins.
Referee: Graham Scott (Oxfordshire)
Preamble
A satisfying season for both clubs? Leeds, most definitely. Burnley, less so but staying up has been achieved with plenty to spare, and on a shoestring budget. That’s been the Sean Dyche way for a few years. If Marcelo Bielsa has anything to learn from Dyche it is that ability to keep staying afloat in the Premier League when those around are circling the drain. It’s an end-of-season affair, so it may well be that both managers let their teams off the leash a little and let them go for it. Let’s hope so, though Dyche will want his team to get something off a manager with diametrically opposed viewpoints on the game and Bielsa never, ever lets up. He will be expecting his players to run just as hard as ever.
Kick-off at 12.30pm BST. Join me.
Updated
