Leeds stun Chelsea to end losing run and move out of relegation zone

Leeds produced their best display of the season in a stunning 3-1 home win against Chelsea to climb out of the Premier League’s bottom three.

Jaka Bijol headed Leeds into an early lead with his first goal for the club and Ao Tanaka arrowed a brilliant strike into the bottom corner for his first of the season two minutes before half-time.

Chelsea pulled one back soon after the restart through substitute Pedro Neto but Dominic Calvert-Lewin restored Leeds’ two-goal advantage as the Yorkshire side snapped a four-game losing run to ease some of the pressure on under-fire boss Daniel Farke.

The Londoners beat Barcelona 3-0 at Stamford Bridge last week and held Arsenal 1-1 with 10 men on Sunday but they were ambushed at Elland Road and lost ground on leaders Arsenal and Manchester City.

A fierce rivalry stretching back to the late 1960s resumed at Elland Road amid a white-hot atmosphere at kick-off and Leeds tore into the Londoners before sweeping into a sixth-minute lead.

Anton Stach’s corner to the near post picked out the charging Bijol and although Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez got a hand to the big Slovenia defender’s thumping header, it was too powerful to keep out.

Leeds never allowed their opponents to settle in the opening 20 minutes and wasted further chances through Pascal Struijk and Tanaka before Chelsea began to get a foothold in the game.

But the visitors had to wait 39 minutes before carving out their first chance, through Liam Delap, which was easily gathered by Leeds goalkeeper Lucas Perri.