Chelsea 3-1 Leeds United: Three Things We Learned

Chelsea maintained their good run of form with a 3-1 comeback victory over Leeds United at Stamford Bridge in London in the Premier League on Saturday evening.

The Blues headed into the match against Leeds as favourites and were expected to pick up all three points from the encounter.

However, it was the visiting team from West Yorkshire who took the lead. Kalvin Phillips found Patrick Bamford with a brilliant pass, and the former Chelsea striker made no mistake in finding the back of the net.

That was as early as the fourth minute, and although Leeds played well thereafter, they could not stop Olivier Giroud from equalising on 27 minutes.

Chelsea went 2-1 up on 61 minutes when Kurt Zouma headed home from a corner, and in the third minute of injury time, Christian Pulisic wrapped up the scoring for Frank Lampard’s side with the third goal for the hosts.

The result means that Chelsea are now at at the top of the Premier League table with 22 points from 11 matches and are rated at 11/2 by Betfair to win the title this season, while Leeds are currently 13th in the standings with 14 points from 11 games.

This is what we learned from Chelsea’s win against Leeds on Saturday evening:

Olivier Giroud is a big player for Chelsea

Olivier Giroud scored all four goals in Chelsea’s win against Sevilla in the Champions League in midweek, and the France international striker was once again among the goals against Leeds. The former Arsenal star has been linked with moves away from Stamford Bridge as he is not guaranteed a place in the starting lineup, but his performance and goal against Leeds shows that he remains a big player for Lampard’s team.

Leeds United are not in Chelsea’s class

Leeds have been superb so far this season and have made it hard for the opposition, but against Chelsea, especially in the second half, they simply could not do enough. True, Marcelo Bielsa’s side ran a lot and gave the Blues a run for their money in the opening minutes, but in the end, the class of players such as Timo Werner shone through. Leeds will not get relegated from the Premier League, but they are not going to find it easy to finish in the top 10 either.

Chelsea are genuine title contenders

Lampard may have played down Chelsea’s chances of winning the Premier League title this season after the win against Leeds, but there is no doubt that they are among the contenders. The Blues have some world-class players such as Werner and Thiago Silva, and the way they are scoring goals and also not conceding too many are signs that they are a force to be reckoned with this season.