Aston Villa 2 Leeds United 3: Phil Hay's verdict - White Christmas secured as Villa Park comeback allows Marcelo Bielsa's men to dream

The club are halfway down the road to promotion from the Championship and keeping their side of the bargain spectacularly but granite chins were the order of the weekend for anyone of a Leeds persuasion. The punches taken by Warrington against Carl Frampton in Manchester were replicated yesterday as Leeds stood up to the worst Aston Villa could thrown at them and knocked them out in the dying seconds.

Another visit to the West Midlands had threatened another whipping and Marcelo Bielsa, a month-and-a-half on from a 4-1 beating by West Bromwich Albion, must have wondered if something is in the air around Birmingham but the Argentinian is never outwitted easily and Leeds held their nerve at 2-0 down to reel Villa in and beat them seconds before the final whistle.

Bielsa saw similarities between Villa and West Brom - the same potency which Leeds witnessed at The Hawthorns when West Brom put four goals past them - and yesterday’s game was on the same path after Villa scored twice in the first 17 minutes. A cricket score loomed but Bielsa worked some magic with the help of a fearless 18-year-old and inspired a victory which gave him his Christmas number one. Top of the Championship on December 25, with so much to chase in the second half of the season.

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Over 90 minutes Leeds were a glaring contrast either side of half-time; a team who before the interval looked like injuries, absences and the departure of Samuel Saiz on loan to Getafe had stretched them beyond breaking point but a team who, with the introduction of Jack Clarke, found a way turn a two-goal deficit into an end-to-end game which Kemar Roofe won in the fifth minute of injury-time. Bielsa rarely knows when he is beaten, which might explain why Leeds have lost so few games this season. By injury-time it was hard to know if a point could even have been classed as a good one.

Bielsa has been holding Clarke back since his breakthrough at first-team level, using him as a half-time substitute to superb effect. The same approach was taken at Villa Park as Clarke replaced a meandering Jack Harrison after 45 minutes; one player from Manchester City’s academy stepping aside for another who could have gone there before he signed professional terms with United a year ago. Leeds have found a diamond in their 18-year-old winger, a talent too good to be partially shielded much longer, and Clarke’s goal on 55 minutes was the cause of everything that followed.

Bielsa is not the diamond-buying type, a man without materialistic ideals, and all he would want for Christmas is a change in his luck with his casualty list, not to mention a couple of signings to counter it. Every returning player at Elland Road is met by another dropping out and Patrick Bamford was left behind when Leeds travelled to Birmingham after stepping out of Saturday morning’s training session.

Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa plays down Patrick Bamford injury following Aston Villa absence

Bamford had only returned from knee ligament damage a week earlier, scoring in a 1-0 win away at Bolton, and scans on his knee reassured Leeds that the ligament in question was intact but Villa away was a fixture where every ounce of Bielsa’s armoury was needed. He has not been Full Metal Jacket at any stage since his appointment as head coach.

Worse still was the loss of Barry Douglas to illness in the warm-up, forcing 18-year-old Leif Davis - one of no fewer than six Under-23s on Bielsa’s bench - into an unexpected debut. Davis is well-thought of at Leeds’ academy, a slick and versatile defender, but the deep end at Villa asked a lot of him. Luke Ayling’s comeback from injury brought some relief, though, and the question as Leeds’ form hardens with a sixth straight win was how dangerous they could be at 100 per cent strength.

Below full strength at Villa Park, and compelled to replace Douglas in haste, Leeds were found out immediately. Davis had already got away with one questionable challenge on Tammy Abraham as the striker broke free when a fifth-minute through-ball from Conor Hourihane ran between United’s centre-backs and found John McGinn ghosting into the box. A touch off the midfielder ran to Abraham who arced a sliding finish into the net.

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Dean Smith, Villa’s manager, promised that his team - so full of goals in the past two months - would score against Leeds and the timing of Abraham’s finish gave them priceless initiative which Leeds struggled to rip away. On 17 minutes, Bielsa’s side put themselves in harm’s way for a second time and were punished again. Harrison lost possession on the right wing and Jonathan Kodjia brought the ball inside, feeding an unmarked Hourihane. The midfielder sized up Bailey Peacock-Farrell and wrapped his left boot around it, curling a shot beyond the goalkeeper’s reach.

Immediately, the priority was avoiding an annihilation against a side who are good enough to dish them out but there were moments when Leeds might have turned the tide. James Bree’s misplaced header was clawed away from the top corner by Villa keeper Orjan Nyland and Mateusz Klich let Smith’s team off lightly when he appeared in the box one-on-one with Nyland in the 25th minutes. A weak strike was easily saved.

Possession swung back and forth but Leeds could find no way to hose Villa down. Bielsa likes expansive football but not football without control and the end-to-end exchanges seemed to suit Villa more. United’s head coach, though, paced in for half-time knowing his players could have scored at least two themselves. Pablo Hernandez’s free-kick on 37 minutes was inches from dropping inside Nyland’s left-hand post. Gjanni Alioski, who found some sparkling form at last, narrowly missed the opposite upright just before the interval.

Aston Villa 2 Leeds United 3: Whites rewarded for Villa Park belief, insists Marcelo Bielsa

Smith sensed the pressure and appeared to order Villa to go for the kill in the second half. Kodjia almost ended the contest with a shot which rose over the crossbar but in the 57th minute, the frailty which Villa’s defence had shown in patches caught up with them.

Clarke appeared with the ball in front of Ahmed Elmohamady and forced the defender to back-pedal, creating space for the winger to cut inside and lash a shot past Nyland. Clarke has been turning games for the past month and Bielsa is out of reasons for stopping him cutting loose from the start.

Five minutes later, Leeds drew level. Villa’s nerve deserted them and after Jansson chased a pitch invader from the field, he ran back to the hosts’ box and nodded a corner from Hernandez past a flat-footed Nyland. Villa feared the worst and with good reason, knowing their confidence was blown.

The game was wild in the final half-hour, played with admirable desperation on both sides. Leeds cut into Villa’s defence every time the ball came to them and Nyland dived to push away a shot from Alioski with 10 minutes to go. A blatant handball by Glenn Whelan inside his box went unnoticed but injury time came, four minutes of it elapsed and a shaky Elmohamady sold Villa’s point with a weak header which Roofe volleyed sweetly into the far corner. Christmas is a time for miracles. Try telling this club not to dream.