Hiya @Jack, can I ask how you're making those graphics, particular the match result ones? I'd love to have something like that in future stories, and it looks gorgeous.
August - September 2022
Our first game was at Elland Road against Southampton who begin their fifth season with Ralph Hasenhüttl at the helm. However, it wasn’t to be a successful start for the visitors who lost 3-1 to us thanks to goals from Thiago Almada, Kalvin Phillips and a Raphinha penalty despite Kyle Walker-Peters’ attempts to salvage something.
Our first away fixture at Arsenal meant we also lost our first game of the season at the Emirates through an early goal with their two wingers Nicolas Pépé and Bukayo Saka connecting with each other on either flank to score the only goal of the game.
However, we returned to action away from home in the next game with a bang against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium. We smashed the Foxes 4-0 with Riechedly Bazoer, Thiago Almada, Joe Aribo and Daniel James getting his last goal for Leeds United in a second-half thriller.
Our first cup tie in the Carabao Cup was against our fellow Yorkshire-based team Rotherham United who play in League One. It took us penalties to finally defeat them despite Andrea Petagna’s opener on the hour mark.
Our third consecutive away trip in the league was against our dear rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford in front of over 74,000. It was heartbreak for us in the end with Ronaldo missing a first-half penalty meaning we took Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s team past the 90-minute mark at 0-0 until their £25.5M January signing Ricardo Horta struck a winner past us right at the death.
We finally returned to Elland Road in the Premier League with a fixture against the latest Championship title-holders Fulham, who had bounced straight back under Marco Silva’s leadership. Their rocky start to life back in the top-flight continued against us, though, as Petagna, Phillips, Raphinha and loanee Callum Hudson-Odoi sent us on our way to a 4-2 win despite a Josh Onomah brace trying to claw something back for Fulham.
In another trip down south, it was Brentford who came back from Mateusz Klich’s early opener to win 2-1 at their new 17,250 capacity stadium with their £5M summer signing Sean Longstaff scoring the winner in the last ten minutes.
Our final game - and fifth away match - of the month came against the English champions Liverpool. In a similar performance to our last trip to Anfield when we gave them the title with a 5-0 win, they were almost just as cruel to us this season as they romped home to a 4-0 win as the transfer window came to a close.
On top of this, Charlton Athletic embarrassed us in the League Cup with a 3-1 home win at The Valley where Charlie Kirk scored a five-minute brace for the League One side, helping to knock us out in the Third Round of the competition.
Our long-overdue return to Elland Road was also compounded by another disappointing loss, this time at the hands of Joachim Löw’s Spurs. It was a fellow German who got the opener through Niklas Süle before the Austrian Florian Grillitsch made sure the three points went back to North London.
Our arrival at Molineux finally put an end to our four-game losing run after we came back from a goal down in the second-half as Kalvin Phillips bagged one from outside the area before our big-money arrival Dušan Vlahović got his first Leeds goal under his belt to win the game late-on in the 87th minute.
Vlahović’s first Leeds goal seemed to give him a confidence boost as he single-handedly won us all three points against Eddie Howe’s new-look Newcastle side with a goal in the 15th and 93rd minute of the game to ensure a 2-0 win at Elland Road, making it 3 goals in 5 starts for the Serbian.
Our five wins/five losses start to the first ten games of this Premier League is certainly better than last year’s beginning. We seem a lot more comfortable as a collective team with the added quality as I feel like some of Bielsa’s old-guard were beginning to physically and mentally struggle with what it was like in the Premier League.
At the top, Liverpool have started just as they finished last season as they rocket to the top of the division with Arsenal just two points behind them but with a game-in-hand. Chelsea, Man City and Man United all follow behind the top two but are currently more than a win away from them at this moment.
Southampton’s Che Adams has helped his side maintain their impressive performances as the Scottish international has scored 11 goals in 10 games, becoming the second top-scorer as he stands just two goals behind Man City’s new star-man Erling Haaland.
There are currently some surprising names in the bottom three with Wolves right at the bottom with only 4 points despite pundits predicting a steady season for Ronald Koeman’s men. Possibly even more shocking is Newcastle United all the way down in 19th, though, following two years of heavy spending on players under Eddie Howe as the former Bournemouth boss has racked up a £425M bill on just 11 players so far for the oil-rich club.
James: Surely Dusan has you more excited than Ayling had you down :'( A fair amount done on instalments but for good value nonetheless.
Tango: It certainly looks readier than ever to compete!
Seb: The old guard are slowly being replaced and to some it might be long overdue, some of those players we had were really beginning to fade in ability, particularly with the physical demands past and present.
Jxgsaw: Thank you mate! Always good to have new followers.
Max: He was a shrewd loan when I realised that I didn't have too much left in the coffers to spend on a permanent signing. Who knows? He might come to join us after the £77m tag has expired!
Harleygator: I use a template that I created personally on a free-to-use image manipulator, was a lot of work to put it all together originally but now it's just the typing in that needs to be done
