Jesse Marsch's relegation pressure admission as he vows Leeds United will do all they can

The Whites looked relatively safe just a few weeks ago, before Burnley went on a three-game winning streak and Everton beat Chelsea at Goodison on Sunday. Although Marsch’s men have suffered just one defeat in six, the Premier League table has worsened significantly and the 18th-placed Toffees now sit just two points behind the Whites with a game in hand.

Speaking even before Everton’s 1-0 victory over top-three side Chelsea, Marsch admitted that the pressure was being cranked up on Leeds but insisted their focus could not wander to what was happening elsewhere

“Yeah, it’s a reality," he said.

“The pressure is a reality but we have to control our reaction to the pressure and focus our energies in ways that can live in realities.

“And the realities are that the more that we’re able to focus on ourselves in our performances, then the more that we’ve been able to control results and put good performances together.”

Good performances will be necessary if Leeds are to get anything like the positive results that would justify Marsch’s optimism. Next up is Arsenal, away, before a home game against Chelsea. The Gunners are riding their own three-game winning streak, having conquered Chelsea, Manchester United and West Ham United, while the inconsistent Blues cannot be expected to put in a sub-par performance against traditional rivals at a packed Elland Road. Beyond those games lie tricky tests against Brighton and Brentford.

The fixture list has delivered a horrible looking run-in for a head coach still trying to fully implement his ideas, yet Marsch believes Leeds are ‘ahead of schedule’ in dealing with such a big change in managerial regimes. He also has a squad who will give their all to rescue the club from the peril it has allowed itself to slip into.

“So much has changed in the last two months. I feel like we’ve been ahead of schedule the whole time.

“I think as hard as it is accepting certain things along the way that it’s not perfect, it’s never going to be perfect and transitioning out of a lot of different things and into what I would like this to be moving forward was never going to be easy but I can, again, say to our fans that our players are so committed in every way, and so selfless and do whatever they can every day to try to make the fans proud and keep us in this league.

“It’s closer than what any of us would like. But whatever man, let’s keep going.”