Leeds United 1 Manchester United 1: A game to sum up a season as Whites do well, but could have done better — Yorkshire Post 4/1/26

By Stuart Rayner

Daniel Farke probably pitched it just right with his assessment of Leeds United’s first home game of 2026: “a light disappointment”.

It nails the Whites’ season so far.

With far more matches you felt they ought to have got more from than ones where the full-time whistle was met with sighs of relief, it could have been better.

Yet if it ends on its current trajectory, the party will probably – and deservedly – last all summer.

Leeds could have beaten Manchester United at Elland Road, but a 1-1 draw nudged them a step closer to mission accomplished.

A seventh match unbeaten – consistency their cross-Pennine rivals should envy – extended the gap to the relegation zone to eight points after Saturday defeats for Burnley, West Ham United, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest.

After just 20 games back in the Premier League, you would need a heart of stone and a head of straw not to take that. A draw with a side they had not beaten in the division for 23 years, three months and 21 days was not to be sniffed at either in Leeds’ circumstances.

Granted, in all that time, a Red Devils team-sheet can rarely if ever have offered as much encouragement as Sunday’s with six defenders and two holding midfielders.

But Leeds were missing the banned Ethan Ampadu and injured Jayden Bogle and Joe Rodon. With Farke claiming their deputies only started as there was no one else, they were not at their best. Few teams are by the end of the Festive slog.

When Brenden Aaronson gave them the lead, they gave it back minutes later.

Both sides hit the woodwork but it was those in red clinging to the point when the final whistle blew.

Farke made substitutions to win the game; Joshua Zirkzee’s introduction was decisive for Ruben Amorim, but felt like the only one he dared make, with a squad assembled at far greater cost than Leeds’ struggling to withstand injuries and Africa Cup of Nations call-ups.

Despite that, the Red Devils stood up well to a bearpit atmosphere few of their players had experienced, with Anton Stach's crunching third-minute tackle on Matheus Cunha a warning that the hostility was not only coming from the stands.

But with Jaka Bijol excellent defensively, Leeds only really looked at risk from set pieces, this being the 2025-26 Premier League, after all.

Bijol got in the way of a Benjamin Sesko shot, Sebastiaan Bornauw did likewise with a Lisandro Martinez effort and Bijol got across well when good link-up play between Cunha and Manuel Ugarte threatened to release Sesko down the middle.

Leeds attacked less in the first half, but better.

Noah Okafor played Dominic Calvert-Lewin in after a good move down the left, but the Sheffielder put Leeds' first noteworthy shot over in the 10th minute.

Luke Shaw made an important back-post header to stop James Justin – filling in for Bogle, who had a “minor calf problem” – arriving onto a Gabriel Gudmundsson cross, and Ayden Heaven had to dive into a tackle in the penalty area, but won the ball off the hurdling Justin.

In the 36th minute Calvert-Lewin ran onto an excellent Stach cross and headed it onto the far post.

It took 40 minutes for Lucas Perri to be tested, showing good reflexes to tip Lenny Yoro's header over after Casemiro nodded on a corner.

Senne Lammens had to get down low in the 51st minute to deny Gudmundsson as the Swede followed his own long throw-in.

The Red Devils broke from the flag kick, Ugarte nicking the ball off Ilia Gruev to start a move which ended with him shooting off target and off balance from the edge of the area. Bijol did well again to cut out Cunha’s ball with Justin caught out.

With the game in the balance, Aaronson delivered the first blow.

When the visitors tried to be too intricate around the halfway line, Pascal Struijk simply stabbed the ball forward, and watched the American get in behind Heaven and slot the opening goal.

But the lead lasted only three minutes. Zirkzee came on before the game restarted, and threaded a ball into Cunha, who slid his shot past the indecisive Perri, half off his line.

Lammens was forced into an excellent stretching save by Noah Okafor's overhead kick, and Cunha hit a post with Perri beaten.`

But the late pressure came mainly from Leeds.

The game was in its 88th minute when Stach played substitute Joel Piroe through to curl a shot onto the roof of the net. Stoppage time saw a Piroe shot blocked and Stach volley wide.

In the end, a draw was probably about right but any frustration amongst the Leeds supporters was a sign of how far their team has come in seven-and-a-half games.