Kembali
47 min: Another excellent defensive header from Yoro at the back post clears the danger for Manchester United. The Frenchman is staying at right-back, by the way, with Mazraoui tucking in as a direct replacement for Martínez at centre-back.
Half-time reading, courtesy of Jonathan Wilson.
A glance at the other half-time scores seem to back up Jonathan’s argument. Sunderland and Crystal Palace both travelled away for gruelling Europa League assignments on Thursday and have again struggling in the Premier League.
Palace fielded a first-choice side in Lyon, and were beaten by the French side, They look knackered at Brighton, who are fresh after winning in the Conference League with a largely second-string team.
Elland Road is bouncing, of course it is.
“I don’t understand why Justin and Bogle are not in the discussion for England right-back,” emails Gary Stover. “That Farke has found a way to start them both must be a key to Leeds success. What do you think?”
Justin and Bogle are very good footballers. I’m not sure they would win England the European Championship in 20278. Reece James, Nico O’Reilly, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Lewis Hall might.
A bit more on those teams: Leeds are unchanged for the fifth game in a row. That’s hardly surprising, given their excellent form. Daniel Farke’s team were unlucky to narrowly lose at Arsenal last weekend.
Manchester United make two changes from the Champions League defeat at Atlético. Harry Maguire returns in place of Ayden Heaven, and Amad Diallo comes into the side instead of Marcus Rashford. Carlos Baleba makes his first Premier League start, while Matthijs de Ligt is in the squad for the first time since November 2025.
Leeds 3-4-2-1: Trafford; Justin, Elvedi, Muharemovic; Bogle, Ampadu, Tanaka, Gudmundsson; Stach, Okafor; Calvert-Lewin.
Subs: Zetterer, Longstaff, Wilson, Aaronson, Nmecha, Bijol, Bahoya, Bard, Gruev.
Manchester United 4-2-3-1: Lammens; Yoro, Maguire, Martinez, Dalot; Santos, Baleba; Fernandes, Tielemans, Diallo; Mbeumo.
Subs: Darlow, Mazraoui, de Ligt, Mount, Rashford, Cunha, Zirkzee, Lacey, Amass.
Referee: Darren England (South Yorkshire)
With apologies to Brighton and Palace fans, welcome to the game of the weekend, in the Premier League at least.
Today’s clash between two Uniteds is dripping with narrative and consequence, not least because they are two of the biggest, most historic rivals in England. Leeds have enjoyed a fine start to the season and will leapfrog Liverpool into fifth with victory today while Manchester United are enduring their worst league start in 40 years, with manager Michael Carrick under severe pressure to save his job. The former midfielder has been fighting fires all week after Lisandro Martínez poured petrol on the club’s Champions League defeat in midweek with his post-match incendiary comments about the club’s hierarchy and a lack of investment – remarks for which he has now apologised, sort of.
Carrick has attempted to smooth things over, claiming things are all resolved between player and Manchester United’s director of football Jason Wilcox, and confirmed that Martínez is in the squad for the trip to Elland Road; the 5ft9in centre back will be hoping to do a whole lot better against Dominic Calvert-Lewin than he did against another Dominic in Tottenham’s Solanke, with the latter bullying Martínez to score a late equaliser for 10-man Spurs at Old Trafford next week. If Martínez wants the squad to be improved, he might find himself on the chopping block, the Argentinian’s contract expires at the end of this season, although Manchester United do have an option to end it by another 12 months.
Leeds will be desperate to compound Manchester United’s misery but have not beaten their rivals on their own patch in over 24 years. It was another Manchester United centre back that endured a tough time that day in September 2002, with Rio Ferdinand booed every time he touched the ball following his after his move across the Pennines, before the former Leeds defender lost Harry Kewell for the only goal of the game.
Plenty at stake, then. We’ll have team news for you shortly. Roll on kick-off at 2pm BST.