Leeds United and Mateusz Klich fully focused on the Championship task at hand

The drama was electric and the points salvaged against Blackburn Rovers could be worth a Premier League fortune next season but Leeds United’s players are not in need of any additional tension.

The club’s 3-2 win over Blackburn, the most improbable result Elland Road has seen in years, is the sort of match Elland Road will speak about for years to come if it forms part of the fabric of promotion in May but both Marcelo Bielsa and Mateusz Klich agreed that Leeds’ Boxing Day game should never have reached the stage of requiring two goals in five minutes of injury-time.

United were 1-0 up and dominant at half-time, denied a second goal when Gjanni Alioski’s shot hit the crossbar, but they gifted Blackburn two goals after the interval as Charlie Mulgrew converted a penalty and then struck with a free-kick on 90 minutes, helped by a mistake from goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell. It was all part of a plot which, in Bielsa’s words, made football “incomparable” but no-one in his squad would object to a neat and tidy win at home to Hull City this weekend.

No victory over Hull could be unremarkable since Leeds, with seven straight wins behind them, are one victory away from their longest unbroken run on 87 years but Klich would happily settle for a weekend free of “unnecessary stress.” Roofe’s 95th-minute header against Blackburn came three days after his 95th-minute volley which earned Leeds three points by the same scoreline at Villa Park and Bielsa’s side have been spending Christmas on the edge.

Leeds United podcast - Inside Elland Road: Trying to make sense of two Christmas miracles“It was very intense and very, very good at the end,” Klich said, “but there was unnecessary stress for everyone because we should have won earlier. We should have killed the game and I hope that on Saturday we’re going to score more goals and have a more relaxed afternoon.

“We never give up and we want to win every game. We want to just for go for it so when we lost the second goal and it went 2-1 (to Blackburn) we had a feeling we could still score. We had the time and we did it again but it won't happen every time for us. We’re going to lose games like that.”

It stood to reason at the start of this season that the appointment of Bielsa and the sweeping changes he made to the squad he inherited in June would cause a degree of inconsistency and mixed results as his ideas sank in. Instead, Leeds began the term with an eight-match unbeaten run, have lost three times in the Championship and only once since mid-October. It is table-topping form and Leeds, with a three-point advantage, are certain to enter the new year in first place.

The impact of their form can been seen on the gaps opening up behind them. Sheffield United were within two points of Leeds when the clubs met at Bramall Lane on December 1. Three weeks later they are 10 points back. Middlesbrough and Derby County have also lost touch and Nottingham Forest, the team who host United on New Year’s Day, are fully 15 off the top. Bielsa denied on Wednesday that automatic promotion is in Leeds’ hands but it is starting to look like Leeds’ to lose.

Leeds United can last the Championship pace, insists Mateusz KlichBielsa is drawing dividends from his commitment to play to win without exception. Villa away last Sunday was touted as one of the more difficult fixtures in the division but Leeds had almost twice as many shots on goal as Villa. They peppered Blackburn with 24 - albeit a large number of long-range effort - and were faced with just eight in return.

“Our style is very attacking, it's very offensive, and we take a lot of risks,” Klich said. “But you can see we also concede goals and we need to defend well. When we defend well we win games more easily and probably not everyone wants to see dramatic games like this. In the end it's the three points that matter.

“We had a lot of possession against Blackburn but we didn't really create chances to score a goal (until injury-time) and that wasn't good enough. We have to improve that for Saturday but I think the two last games showed that we’re very strong mentally. We can score goals against anyone and we play good football.”

At present a group of three clubs are sneaking clear at the top of the table: Leeds on 51 points, Norwich three points back and West Brom a further three in arrears. Norwich themselves scored twice in injury-time on Wednesday, a trick Daniel Farke’s side have repeated with incredible regularity, to pinch a 3-3 draw with Nottingham Forest and their unbeaten run goes back to October 6. West Brom, who are still the only side to outclass Bielsa’s so far, last lost a game almost two months ago.

Bielsa suspects that the table could yet change rapidly and significantly and Klich admitted he would like to see more daylight between Leeds and the chasing pack before talking confidently about the club’s prospects of promotion.

Leeds United 3 Blackburn Rovers 2 - the final word: How late is too late? Playing to win, Gjanni Alioski's resurgence and a record on the line"We need to make the gap even bigger,” he said. “We know West Brom are going to win games and you saw with Norwich that they scored in the 93rd and 98th minute again. They’re dropping points but they’re not losing games.

“We need to keep winning. If we’re winning games then we don't need to look at anyone else’s. This (the win over Blackburn) shows that we’re always going to fight until the end. The game’s not 90 minutes but 97 or 98 minutes. We can score goals, even in a short period of time.”

Leeds have experienced false dawns before and in both of the past two seasons. Garry Monk had the club on the verge of play-off qualification in 2017, only for the term to fall away in the final month. Thomas Christiansen flirted with promotion last season before losing control and losing his job in February.

Bielsa, though, is hardened in a way which Christiansen was not; in total command of his dressing room and free from any challenge to his authority. Klich’s face failed to fit under Christiansen and he was loaned out by the Dane to Utrecht for the second half of last season but the inwards collapse at Leeds was very visible in Holland.

“I was here last season and I saw that after Christmas it was not good,” Klich said. “But this time we have a different manager. He keeps telling us that every game is going to be difficult, that there are no easy games. He keeps us on the ground.”