The Leeds logic behind their ‘magical night’ — and why it could last — Independent 18/8/25

Leeds United 1-0 Everton: Lukas Nmecha’s late penalty gives the newly promoted side a perfect start with victory at Elland Road

Richard Jolly

Five years ago, Leeds United marked their return to the Premier League with a helter-skelter affair against opposition from Merseyside. Marcelo Bielsa’s side lost 4-3 to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in a classic. In 2025, there was a superficial similarity in the fixture list, none whatsoever in the game but Leeds could savour an outcome they preferred. Everton were beaten 1-0 and, for the second time in the opening round of games, a promoted club tasted victory.

Daniel Farke’s Leeds will never have the romance of Bielsa’s but a prosaic win qualified as a “really magic night” for a manager who entered his 50th Premier League game with just six wins to his name but who could claim the meagre resources at Norwich accounted for that record.

Leeds are trying to be streetwise in their attempts to stay up, embarking on a recruitment drive where the average height of their arrivals is 6ft 2in, and there was logic to Farke’s analysis. “A good start is always crucial,” he said. “The first win out of the way, the first clean sheet.”

And there was an immediate impact from a couple of his newcomers. Lukas Nmecha scored the first goal of Leeds’ latest stint in the elite, just seven minutes after coming on for his debut. His penalty stemmed from Anton Stach’s shot, which deflected and struck the arm of James Tarkowski. Stach was the best player on the pitch: relentless in his running, looking an upgrade, the midfielder also drew a fine shot from Jordan Pickford with a fierce drive. Some £17m looks well spent.

A German manager owed victory to two Germany internationals. A free transfer from Wolfsburg, Nmecha arrived with a mere four Bundesliga goals in the last two seasons. “We definitely need a bit more quality up front,” said Farke; even so, Nmecha began on the bench but supplied the finishing touch Leeds had been lacking.

They scored with their 18th shot of the night. If too many of the others were wayward, Nmecha drilled his penalty past Pickford, to the considerable relief of his manager. “Lukas's first two or three touches were not spot on,” said Farke. "I was overthinking if I should tell him today it's perhaps not the day to take a penalty. Thank God I didn't step in. He was ice cold and calm."

In the process, Nmecha upstaged a rather higher-profile replacement. Jack Grealish made his Everton debut. He operated on the left flank, kept possession and made little other impact. A 20-minute cameo should not define his season but, for him and Everton alike, this was anticlimactic.

Everton created nothing before Grealish’s arrival, little thereafter. Their first-half was so unproductive that they had no shots, recorded an xG of 0.00 and, in the first 38 minutes, completed only 14 passes in the Leeds half, a statistic that was somehow sub-Dychean.

“The frustration was that we didn’t play well enough,” said David Moyes, who conceded his side’s performance didn’t deserve anything. They had at least shown a doggedness as Leeds mounted an offensive. They had the patched-up look of a side who were not really ready for the season to start. Moyes’s management can involve the resourcefulness to find a way with slender squads. Everton, with a shortage of specialist full-backs, had James Garner as an emergency left-back. With no right winger signed, Charly Alcaraz played there; in each case, it was perhaps his fourth best position.

Alcaraz at least drew the best save from Leeds’ debutant goalkeeper Lucas Perri, who had been a spectator in the first half. But the teamsheet showed why Moyes wants three more signings, a full-back and a winger among them. “We are desperate to get more quality,” he said.

Both managers had showed some restraint after the summer trading; Farke only started three of his eight new signings, Moyes just two of his seven and one of those, Alcaraz, had been on loan at the club last season.

For much of the match, it seemed as though Leeds may regret fielding a front three who were part of their Championship-winning side last season. Willy Gnonto was the liveliest of them, but the first to be removed. Joel Piroe, the division’s top scorer last season, may, like Farke, be pigeonholed as a second-tier specialist. The former Swansea striker had a fine chance to address that, but Pickford blocked his close-range shot; it was the first half’s only effort on target. Gallingly for Piroe, he was the nominated penalty taker, but had gone off before it was awarded.

Moyes was irritated by the spot kick, but for other reasons. “It was a really poor decision,” he said, after going to see referee Christopher Kavanagh. “VAR had a chance to undo it. They tried to say he was leaning to the ball. Surely you're allowed to lean with your hands by your sides.”

Tarkowski concurred. “It's a bizarre moment and it cost us a point,” he said. “As soon as the ref blew I was pretty confident it would be overturned. My question to him was, 'if my arm is by my side, was it a penalty?' and he said 'no'.” But Everton’s complaints fell on deaf ears, perhaps because Elland Road was rocking by then.

“It has to become a fortress,” said Farke. Before kick-off, a banner had contained a question. “Premier League, have you missed us?” For more than 80 minutes, it felt the wrong night to ask it. But then Nmecha struck and the top flight had a glimpse of Leeds celebrating a win that was hard-fought rather than spectacular. And yet, for Farke, magical.