Leeds United 4-1 Crystal Palace: Naughty and nice — Square Ball 22/12/25

White Christmas

Written by: Rob Conlon

The best bit about steamrolling Crystal Palace is struggling to work out which was the best bit. In the last game before Christmas, Leeds United gave us so many presents we were left spoiled for choice.

The omens were promising even when the game was still goalless midway through the opening 45 minutes. Palace’s waifish number 10 Yeremy Pino went down in Leeds’ half begging for a free-kick and, with nobody in a white shirt showing any sympathy, had to be picked back up onto his feet by the referee, who wasn’t buying the foul either. Palace might have rocked up to Leeds with one of the best away records in the Premier League and their first-choice XI restored after being rested for European duty a couple of days earlier but, despite the occasional struggles of this season, Elland Road has always demanded character and fight from the players on either team — and Palace had a fanny in the middle of theirs.

Whenever I noticed Pino from that moment onwards, he looked fed up, as if wanting to be anywhere else on the planet. He didn’t complete a dribble, or a cross, or win a tackle. And Leeds gave him everything he deserved.

How Leeds did that might not have always been pretty but was nevertheless full of class. The recent switch to 3-5-2 once again looked like the key that has unlocked United’s chances of success this season. Liberated by the protection of two centre-halves alongside him, Joe Rodon marauded up and down the right wing, at one point even pushing Brenden Aaronson out of the way as he took up a position off the ball as Leeds’ number 10, demanding a pass into midfield. With Rodon surging up the pitch, swinging crosses into the box and twice going close with shots from the edge of the area, Pascal Struijk joined in the fun from the left, pinging a half-volley of his own narrowly wide. It would be an exaggeration to say it was reminiscent of Norman Hunter crossing for Jack Charlton to score in Super Leeds’ 5-1 annihilation of Scum in 1972, but they were at least wearing the same numbers on their shirts and seemingly enjoying the same spirit of endeavour.

Aaronson himself provided a welcome and unexpected contrast to Pino’s wimpishness. His return to the starting line-up was another win for Farke, who could have replaced Ao Tanaka with the more defensive, trustworthy option of Ilia Gruev, but instead tasked Aaronson with showing the skills that so many fans — myself included — doubt that he possesses.

Only a few weeks on from Aaronson running off the pitch when Aston Villa were making a substitution, wishing to be taken off and saved from himself, on this occasion when his number was eventually held aloft in the second half, he was jogging in the opposite direction, back into position, eager to keep playing. His night had been full of his usual neat touches and turns, only this time he followed them up with crisp, quick passes to keep the game and his teammates moving around him. Aaronson’s cheeky flick to an on-rushing Anton Stach in the first half was a joy. His clever drawing of right-back Nathaniel Clyne before playing in Gabi Gudmundsson on the overlap in the second was a moment of clear, effective simplicity as aesthetically pleasing as any stepover.

In the middle of it all, we were even treated to a good ol’ fashioned goalmouth scramble, Struijk forcing an excellent save from Dean Henderson at a corner followed by Gudmundsson, Rodon and Struijk again all trying to force the ball over the line as Palace frantically tried to clear.

And all that’s without mentioning the four goals with which Leeds patiently pummelled Palace.

Ever since Pat Bamford’s ascent to the England team began to crumble due to a succession of injuries, Leeds have been crying out for a striker in a similar mould who could bully centre-halves and drag the team up the pitch. It’s ironic that the answer has finally been provided by a player whose own career trajectory mirrors that of Bamford, but right now Dominic Calvert-Lewin is in one of those alchemic spells for a striker when they’re The Guy. Playing with a boxer’s cut and vaseline above his right eye after banging heads with Marc Geuhi, Calvert-Lewin scored for the fifth consecutive game by reacting quickest first to Ethan Ampadu’s long throw skimming off the head of Chris Richards, then his initial shot being saved by Dean Henderson.

Supporters around the ground were happy to take a one-goal lead into half-time, but moments before the break Calvert-Lewin gave Leeds an even bigger buffer as Jaka Bijol brilliantly headed another Ampadu long throw to the back post, where his centre-forward was waiting to poach his second of the night and be serenaded with chants of ‘England’s number 9’. For all the love towards the promotion team, if Leeds were going to kick on this season then they needed new heroes, and right now Calvert-Lewin and the Elland Road crowd appear made for each other. After all, what’s not to love about a big uncompromising bastard sticking it in the net?

Scoring regularly is all well and good, scoring once in a blue moon is the stuff of cult heroes. Having made his professional debut as a fifteen-year-old for Exeter, Ampadu has been waiting almost a decade to score his first league goal. His only previous strikes for Leeds — a brace overshadowed by Pat Bamford turning into Tony Yeboah in a FA Cup tie at Peterborough — feel so long ago they could have been a mirage. The only other goal in his career came for Spezia in a relegation play-off loss. Yet there he was, playing on the shoulder of the last defender, suddenly in front of goal with the ball at his feet after a corner was cleared and Aaronson headed it back into the box via a flick off Bijol. Ampadu poked it into the bottom corner then raced away celebrating in front of the Kop as his teammates gasped in shock at the sight of their captain scoring a goal — a well-deserved reward for some fine form and leadership ever since that mauling of Chelsea.

By the time Palace were awarded a stoppage-time penalty, fans were already making their way out of the ground, content another huge three points had been secured. Justin Devenny sent Lucas Perri the wrong way from the spot, but when a second roar went up a few minutes later, supporters walking down Lowfields Road must have assumed it was for the full-time whistle, only to be stunned when they checked their phones to learn Anton Stach had curled a late free-kick into the bottom corner for Leeds’ fourth.

For the latest issue of The Square Ball magazine, I watched back Leeds crushing Chelsea 4-1 at Christmas 1990. The last word you would use to describe United’s iconic midfield grinding Chelsea into the mud at Elland Road would be ‘pretty’ — the first two goals came from set-pieces, the third a botched back-pass — but that doesn’t make it any less brilliant. Leeds were playing to a plan they believed in and executed it to perfection, leaving opponents battered, bruised and chasing their shadows in their wake.

That team in 1990 was on a journey from the Second Division to the Last Champions of English football. Nobody is expecting the class of 2025 to achieve anything similar, but the sensation of beating Palace felt much the same. Which might be my favourite thing about the game after all: I want more of it, knowing if Leeds repeat what they have done for the first seventeen games of the season — even the bad bits — for the next seventeen games of the season, there’s every chance they’ll be safe with four games to spare and for the first time in five years we’ll have a few weeks to breathe and relax. As I type that I know I’m going to regret ever thinking it, but of all the presents Leeds United gave me this Christmas the best one was hope.