GEORGE GRAHAM appears to be managing a football team again as opposed to the dispirited group of individuals he took over at Elland Road in September. In beating Chelsea yesterday, Leeds United produced their best performance of the season.
This was Graham's third victory in four matches, a run which has taken Leeds towards the security of mid table following an autumnal flirtation with the relegation area. A few defeats and gloom would descend once more, but on yesterday's evidence this would be a surprise.
For one thing Ian Rush has started to score goals again, finding the net for the first time in 16 games since his arrival from Liverpool, the longest barren spell of his career. Rush was easily the most impressive of the five former Italian League players on the field, upstaging Gianluca Vialli, Roberto di Matteo and Gianfranco Zola in the first half and even Ruud Gullit, whoa brought himself on for Chelsea in the second.
Goals from Brian Deane and Rush in the eighth and ninth minutes exploited a lack of organisation in Chelsea's defence which was never completely put right. Only a series of competent saves by Grodas, their Norwegian goalkeeper, kept the London side in the game.
After half time Gullit managed to get a better rhythm and co ordination into his attack, but to the last Chelsea were thwarted by the defensive excellence of Carlton Palmer, who was outstanding for Leeds, and Paul Beesley, who was not far behind.
A win would have lifted Chelsea from sixth place to fourth, but in this game even their present position flattered them. The nearest they came to scoring was 11 minutes from the end when Frank Sinclair flung himself at Zola's corner and was unlucky to see the ball rebound from the crossbar.
Sinclair had replaced Mark Hughes, caught above the right ankle by Deane 17 minutes from the end. The challenge looked about as accidental as the Kennedy assassination and Hughes needed six stitches in a four inch gash, but Deane, who had been cautioned in the first half for a reckless tackle on Steve Clarke, stayed on the pitch. Vialli, too, after a blatant hack at Rush five minutes later. It was that sort of afternoon.
"The tackle was high," said Hughes, "and I feared the worst." Gullit was mildly offended about the challenge. "Mark's not the sweetest character on the field" he admitted, "and I think he pays a high price for it. But I don't want Chelsea to pay a price."
Chelsea could claim, with some justification, that they should have had a penalty yesterday when Clarke was brought down by Palmer as he moved on to a precisely angled through pass from Frank Leboeuf on the hour. A goal then and a tiring Leeds side might not have been able to hold out.
Yet they deserved the three points for the zest of their attacks in the first half, the solidity of their defending in the second, and the hard working determination of all concerned.
Leeds's early ascendancy was clearly planned that way. Graham wanted the ball played quickly past the Chelsea wing backs, Dan Petrescu and Clarke, and when Beesley produced one such pass from just inside his own half Deane was left clear and onside. Grodas tried to snatch the ball from his feet but the striker dragged it clear before finding an empty net from the acutest of angles.
Then Petrescu had two stabs at, clearing Gary Kelly's long centre, miscuing the first and missing the second altogether, leaving Rush to force the ball in. With Lucas Radebe close marking Zola, Chelsea's immediate response was muted and a 25 yard shot from Hughes, which Nigel Martyn turned wide, represented the sum of their first half scoring efforts.
When Gullit and Eddie Newton replaced Dennis Wise, who had played quite well, and Di Matteo, who had hardly played at all, Chelsea's football acquired a more consistent pattern. Yet Deane, Rush, with an impudent 35 yard lob, and Lee Sharpe might still have increased Leeds's lead, and Martyn remained underemployed to the last.
