If taking over from Marcelo Bielsa seemed the most thankless task at Elland Road, replacing Raphinha was not far behind. The Brazilian may have been the most gifted footballer to play for Leeds since the generation who reached the 2001 Champions League semi-finals. Luis Sinisterra was charged with succeeding Barcelona’s £50m buy and his first Premier League goal extended Leeds’ fine start to the season.
Even as his team missed the opportunity to break into the top four, Bielsa’s successor Jesse Marsch offered more evidence his overhaul will bear fruit. The chance to become the first Leeds side since Don Revie’s eventual champions of 1973-74 to win their first three top-flight home games of a campaign was eschewed but the Colombian’s strike brought echoes of Raphinha. Sinisterra looked the right man for the job.
And yet this was a tale of two goalscoring wingers and two summer transfer targets. Sinisterra has moved but Anthony Gordon, so far, has stayed.
Everton could be grateful for that.
Their third successive 1-1 draw was the second to feature a Gordon goal. But, on an evening when they contributed much, they could nevertheless rue the loss of the lead on the road for the second time in four days. This is their longest winless start to a season in 12 years and, with Liverpool next, the wait may go on.
Even taking two points from back-to-back matches arguably represents improvement, as they have a solitary away league victory in a year. They displayed grit amid unstinting effort in a febrile Elland Road, but still required some acrobatics from Jordan Pickford to draw.
Their evening had started with farce, surprise and disappointment and at least ended with respectability. Deprived of Neal Maupay, due to a combination of a bank holiday and the Premier League’s arcane regulations, they began without a striker for the fourth time in five league matches. The centre-forward was signed at 4pm on Friday, too late to feature at Brentford at the weekend but, Everton thought, early enough for a match that kicked off 100 hours after he was registered. Yet with Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday Monday officially not working days, he was ineligible.
It left Frank Lampard with a forward line consisting of three wingers and rendered it still more important one of them found a scoring touch. Gordon obliged. After four goals in the first 78 games in his career, Gordon has two in two.
Three of the first four were deflected but, for the second time in four days, he found an assured finish. It completed a move he started, the Merseysider making a third-man run after he found Dwight McNeil and then Alex Iwobi slid a defence-splitting pass into his path.
Leeds responded. They had blitzed Chelsea with their intensity in the previous game at Elland Road and, whatever the contents of Marsch’s half-time team talk, they emerged playing at greater pace. Pickford had denied Brenden Aaronson and Jack Harrison before Sinisterra cut in and left the goalkeeper unsighted with a low drive.
He had scored 23 goals for Feyenoord last season. He had struck against Barnsley in the Carabao Cup but a first goal in the Premier League came on his maiden start in the division. It was vindication for Marsch, who had brought him into the side.
But not victory, despite each side pushing. The marginally offside Demarai Gray had what he thought was a winner disallowed. Amadou Onana had a shot brilliantly blocked. Nathan Patterson was denied when Gordon turned supplier to release him. Perhaps he was fortunate to still be involved then. An ill-tempered affair, with the Elland Road crowd irritated by Pickford’s time-wasting, featured a series of minor flashpoints.
Gordon and Rasmus Kristensen went head to head, each collecting yellow cards when neither quite delivered the butt that would have brought red.
Instead, the forward to make a premature exit was Rodrigo, who hurt his shoulder in a collision with Pickford. His replacement, Joe Gelhardt, was the substitute who was substituted, coming off for Patrick Bamford after a cameo when he was twice agonisingly close to a decider. First he shot wide and then he was denied by an inspired Pickford. He has helped make Everton hard to beat but they are finding it even harder to win.
