Daniel Farke: beating Chelsea a great night for everyone involved with Leeds

Daniel Farke said it was “a great night for everyone involved with Leeds United” after his side beat Chelsea 3-1 at Elland Road to climb out of the Premier League relegation zone.

Slovenia defender Jaka Bijol’s thumping header and Ao Tanaka’s superb 25-yard effort gave Leeds a 2-0 interval lead.

Chelsea substitute Pedro Neto pulled one back early in the second half, but Dominic Calvert-Lewin restored Leeds’ two-goal advantage in one of their best displays of the season, which lifted some of the pressure on their manager.

Farke, whose side halted a four-game losing run, said: “It felt like it was a long time coming, but the players deserve to have a night like this because I can’t really remember one poor home performance in the last 15 months.

“There have been many performances during the season where we deserved more points and tonight it was an excellent performance.

“We wanted to be back in the big time, to play against the best sides in the world, and to have Elland Road rocking at its best, in the unbelievable atmosphere. A great night for everyone who is involved with Leeds United.”

Speculation over Farke’s future has been mounting after just three wins from their first 12 league matches, but the German added: “I didn’t have the feeling at all that we were not united today.

“I think Elland Road was back at its best from the first to the last second. I didn’t see any negative comments.

“I didn’t see any doubts, apart from the guy behind my bench. He was not happy when in the first half we had to defend.”

Chelsea followed up last week’s 3-0 Champions League win over Barcelona by holding leaders Arsenal with 10 men on Sunday, but they lost ground at the top of the table and slipped to fourth, nine points adrift of the Gunners.

Head coach Enzo Maresca admitted his side had been out-played by Leeds and needed to “reset” before Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth.

“I think they were better than us in all aspects, they deserved to win the game,” the Italian said.

“There is nothing that we can take from this game. The only thing we can do is try to understand the mistake we have done, try to reset, because in 48 hours we have one more game.

“I hope that we had a bad night because they were on the ball, off the ball, doers, second ball, they were much better than us in all the aspects.”

Maresca revealed he withdrew Estevao at the interval after the frustrated teenage Brazil international had received a yellow card for kicking out at Gabriel Gudmundsson.

“I think the feeling with Estevao was, you know, a little bit ‘welcome to Leeds’,” Maresca added.

“Sometimes aged 18, you struggle to manage emotion, so it was better to change him and to avoid any red card.”