Chelsea sick to their stomachs after Sunday roast at Elland Road

NIGHTMARE: Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel. Photo credit: Nigel French/PA Wire.

Premier League

Leeds 3 

Chelsea 0 

THOMAS Tuchel might consider having his impending ban upgraded from the touchline to the entire stadium if his players offer-up many more capitulations as humiliating as this.

The Chelsea head coach faces a one-game banishment to the stands following his Strictly Come Dancing-esque stand-off with his Tottenham counterpart Antonio Conte last week, and there were times when the German looked like he would rather be absolutely anywhere else than stood helplessly in front of 35,000 Leeds United supporters gleefully reminding him of the surprise scoreline as his 10-men were left to chase shadows.

Chelsea hadn't lost here in the Premier League for almost 20 years, but this was a once in every two-decades display of ineptitude of which the hosts took full advantage to cement their early place among the Champions League places.

In contrast, Chelsea find themselves in a bottom half alongside Liverpool and Manchester United, and Tuchel admitted: "Everything that can go wrong, did go wrong. It started yesterday. We had no plane to arrive so we came on the bus. The players could fly but for the coaching staff it was a long ride on the bus. It continued today.

"We lost the game in the first 20 minutes, where we were clearly better and had huge chances. We had created enough to be 2-0 up to kill the game and then we lost the discipline."

It all started heading south for Chelsea when Edouard Mendy provided the latest compelling evidence that goalkeepers should under no circumstances be mistaken for footballers as Tuchel's side spectacularly pressed the self-destruct button.

They visibly wilted in the West Yorkshire sunshine, shipping two wholly preventable goals in the space of four madcap minutes with half-time approaching to gift-wrap the three points as an increasingly impressive Leeds stretched their unbeaten start.

Chelsea had looked the superior side for most of the previous 33 minutes when Mendy attempted to control a routine backpass from Thiago Silva. Such were the Senegal international's hapless attempts to bring the ball to heel, he might as well have been sporting a particularly large pair of clown's shoes, so Leeds' ubiquitous midfielder Brenden Aaronson was probably the last opponent he wanted to see bearing down on him.

The US international needed no second invitation to make a quick kill in easily dispossessing the leaden-footed keeper before rolling the ball into an unguarded net from all of 12 inches for the 21-year-old's first goal since a £25m summer move from Red Bull Salzburg.

Aaronson's exuberant post-match interview came with an unwittingly damning indictment of Tuchel's players. "It shows who wanted it more," he said. "The crowd got us pumped up and everyone was driven. I've dreamed about this for a long time and it shows how much progress we've made."

Leeds soon doubled their lead thanks to more self-inflicted Chelsea tomfoolery.

Raheem Sterling was fortunate not to concede a penalty when the England forward tripped Marc Roca on the corner of the Chelsea area, but Leeds meted out full punishment in any case. Rodrigo easily out-jumped Reece James to send a glancing header beyond Mendy into the bottom corner for the forward's fourth goal in three games.

Without the unforced errors, Chelsea might just have been worthy of a point. Marc Cucurella wasted two presentable chances either side of the interval when Leeds were caught short down their right flank. Conor Gallagher, who looked like a little boy lost, saw a second-half shot deflected narrowly wide before he was hooked just after the hour.

James almost atoned for his lax tracking of Rodrigo but the full-back's low shot was well saved by Ilan Meslier, and just as the visitors hinted at a late comeback, another rapier Leeds counter-attack culminated with Rodrigo diverting Dan James' cross perfectly into the path of Jack Harrison for the unmarked forward to volley home a close range third.

It ensured the final 20 minutes were played out at little more than testimonial pace. Kai Havertz was left in a heap after inadvertently getting in the way of a goal bound shot from team-mate Hakim Ziyech, and there remained time for Kalidou Koulibaly to earn a second yellow card for a needless foul on substitute Joe Gelhardt to round off an utterly forgettable afternoon for the London side.

Leeds head coach Jesse Marsch: "That's probably the best performance since I've been. We have a bunch of players who have a lot of belief in what they're doing and they understand their roles. We were the better team and made them make mistakes."

LEEDS (4-2-3-1): Meslier 8; Kristensen 8, Koch 8, Llorente 8, Struijk 8; Adams 8, Roca 7 (Forshaw 61, 7); Rodrigo 9 (Gelhardt 83, 7), Aaronson 9 (Klich 83, 6), Harrison 8 (Greenwood 83, 6); James 7 (Sinisterra 70, 6).

CHELSEA (3-4-3): Mendy 3; James 4, Silva 5, Koulibaly 2; Loftus-Cheek 3, Jorginho 4 (Ziyech 64, 4), Gallagher 4 (Pulisic 64, 4), Cucurella 4; Mount 5 (Chilwell 77, 4), Havertz 4, Sterling 4 (Azpilicueta 87, 4). Sent-off: Koulibaly.

Referee: Stuart Attwell