A round-up of what the national media are reporting after Leeds United lost 5-1 to Crystal Palace at Elland Road on Sunday afternoon.
'The Gracia upturn shuddered to a halt'
Jack Gaughan penned for the Mail Online: "The sort of day that cannot just be shrugged off. Not one that will be easy to, either. The ramifications for the remainder of this season do not bear thinking about at the moment.
"Leeds United might even have been better off drawing their last two games — rather than winning one and losing this one so drastically — just so the psychological impact of this did not exist.
Read more: Survival hopes dented and Gracia's bewilderment as Leeds United embarrassed by Crystal Palace
"But it does. And whether Javi Gracia garners a response will determine how this all ends for Leeds. Liverpool come here next Monday. Freefalling Leicester — presumably Jesse Marsch’s Leicester — are in town a fortnight later.
"The Gracia upturn shuddered to a halt in galling fashion. A half-empty Elland Road half-heartedly jeered them off, as Roy Hodgson jigged over towards his own corner to applause.
"Two statistics stood out, which tell something of a story. Jordan Ayew was allowed to score his first-ever brace in English football, eight years after arriving.
"And Crystal Palace recorded 34 successful dribbles, the most by anyone in a Premier League match since Opta started recording such things two decades ago. Go on, after you. Have a run."
'As turnarounds go, this was quite something'
John Aizlewood wrote in the Telegraph: "As turnarounds go, this was quite something. Ahead via Patrick Bamford’s header Leeds were rampant before Guehi struck. Thwarted by the brilliance of Sam Johnstone, starting a Premier League game for the first time since May 2021 and some prodigal finishing.
"By the end, Palace had scored five goals for the first time since they faced Johnstone, then of West Bromwich Albion, in December 2020.
"The fates boded ill for Hodgson before a ball was kicked. Wilfried Zaha’s tearful exit with a groin strain against Leicester City last week precluded his absence, while goalkeeper Vicente Guaita’s calf kept him out.
"No matter, Johnstone was faultless “Sam deserves an awful lot of credit,” noted Hodgson. “this was an opportunity to show what a good goalkeeper he is and he took that”, while Ayew, Zaha’s replacement, scored two goals in an English game for the first time since arriving in 2015.
"Quickly dispelling the torpor that surrounded the dying embers of Patrick Vieira’s regime, the 75-year-old Hodgson has injected a youthful vitality into his under-preforming charges. The victory over Leicester was slightly fortuitous, but this one was born of the tactical guile which transformed impending doom into glorious triumph."
'A deceptively aggressive front-foot style'
Louise Taylor wrote in the Guardian: "Shortly before kick-off a tepid early afternoon sun finally pierced through the banks of grey cloud which had enveloped West Yorkshire since dawn.
"It never became quite warm enough for Roy Hodgson to remove his padded, winter-issue, club anorak but well before the end Crystal Palace’s interim manager bore the contented look of a man refreshed by a week on a tropical beach.
"As the visiting fans chorused “We want six” and the excellent Eberechi Eze repeatedly danced around an increasingly shell-shocked Leeds defence, Hodgson looked as if he could not quite believe his luck.
"After all, until Marc Guéhi equalised on the verge of half-time Leeds had missed successive chances with Palace’s reserve goalkeeper, Sam Johnstone, almost single-handedly keeping his side in the game.
"Everything was transformed after the break with a potentially damaging Leeds surrender leaving Javi Gracia’s side 16th, only two points above Nottingham Forest in the bottom three. In contrast Hodgson’s suddenly upwardly mobile Palace rose to 12th, six points clear of the relegation zone.
"It is now two wins secured and seven goals scored in two games since the 75-year-old emerged from retirement to replace Patrick Vieira at his old club and suddenly anything seems possible. Much more of this and Hodgson will surely find himself the poster boy for the government’s current campaign to get over-50s back to work.
"Gracia’s hitherto fairly realistic hopes of turning his own interim deal into a more permanent contract at Leeds this summer ultimately took quite a knock but his chameleon team began in a deceptively aggressive front-foot style."
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