Stoke City 0 Leeds United 3 - Big Match Verdict: Improving Whites settle another old score in most emphatic fashion yet

Wigan Athletic; the side who put the biggest nail in the coffin of the club’s 2019 promotion bid; swept aside 2-0 four months later.

Brentford, who lowered that coffin into the ground with a 2-0 success on Easter Monday, stung by a late Eddie Nketiah winner in the very next game.

Seven months after a 2-1 defeat back in January, Stoke City were next on United and head coach Marcelo Bielsa’s hitlist.

Another week, another old wound healed and in the most emphatic style yet to further fuel hope that the deepest scar of all could disappear with promotion in nine months’ time.

Stoke and Leeds are in different places to when the two sides met back in January for former Luton Town boss Nathan Jones’ first game in charge.

Back then, goals from Sam Clucas and Joe Allen got Jones off to a flyer as Leeds finished the game with ten men following Pontus Jansson’s dismissal.

Stoke, though, have won only two games since with the Potters approaching Saturday’s hosting of Leeds on the back of a miserable start to the new campaign sat bottom of the table with just one point from their first four games.

Leeds headed back to the Potteries in the same position as last time - top - and strengthened their hold on that early season position through a 3-0 victory.

But even Bielsa admitted United’s football is feeling different in his second season in charge - more spontaneous as he put it - with the Potters poleaxed by three of the best goals of his reign so far.

United now have the same number of points as at this stage last season; 13 after five games played.

Time well tell if this Whites side can stay there or more importantly in the top two for that little bit longer and finally seal promotion to the Premier League after a 15-year absence.

After last season’s heartbreak, nobody wants to be dealing with the potential consequences of finishing lower then second.

As managing director Angus Kinnear said himself in the Leeds United - Take Us Home documentary - “the goal for next year is automatic promotion, we are not d*cking around with the play-offs anymore.”

Steer clear of injuries and repeat the football showcased at Stoke and the Whites will be just fine.

Saturday’s contest presented just the sort of banana skin that often left Leeds on their backside last season; think QPR and Birmingham City away, the Good Friday horror show against Wigan. And January at Stoke.

But this was another chance to show what this season’s new Leeds United were about with Potters boss Jones seeking a strong reaction to the midweek 3-1 loss at Preston North End after which the Stoke boss took aim at his quite evidently underperforming players.

Despite some high profile summer departures, this is a Stoke squad featuring the likes of England international goalkeeper Jack Butland and Wales international Joe Allen but both found themselves dropping to the bench as Jones swung the axe and made six changes to his side.

Bielsa’s only change was enforced with skipper Liam Cooper not at 100 per cent after an ankle injury and replaced by Gaetano Berardi next to continually impressing Brighton loanee Ben White at centre-back.

Back three White, Berardi and Kalvin Phillips had to hold firm in the opening exchanges as the Potters peppered the Leeds goal with Liam Lindsay narrowly failing to connect with an early corner.

United were taking time to hit their stride but Mateusz Klich forced Butland’s replacement Adam Federici into making a save in the 11th minute before Jack Harrison was denied two minutes later.

Stoke then narrowly survived in the 14th minute as a Pablo Hernandez drive was beaten away with Klich’s follow-up attempt blocked.

After surviving those scares, Stoke appeared to gain in confidence with Peter Etebo galloping through the middle of the park but dispossessed by a perfect sliding tackle from White.

But Leeds gradually began to turn the screw with efforts from Stuart Dallas and then Patrick Bamford narrowly off target before a moment of magic from Hernandez led to United taking a 42nd-minute lead.

The industrious Adam Forshaw found Harrison whose first touch pass to Hernandez saw the Spaniard repeat the trick with a sublime diagonal through ball for Dallas who raced in down the right flank before confidently slotting home past Federici in one of the best goals of the Bielsa era so far.

Stoke immediately looked broken and Federici then denied Klich on the stroke of half-time.

Jones resisted any temptation to make any changes during the half-time interval and Leeds were immediately on the attack within seconds of the restart with Dallas seeing a fierce attempt blocked.

But another sublime move led to United doubling their lead in the 50th minute as Hernandez found Bamford whose perfectly weighted low cross left Gjanni Alioski with a tap in at the far post.

Stoke were beaten yet Leeds poured forwards in search of a third with Harrison and Klich inches away with fine efforts from the edge of the box.

But another Whites goal looked imminent and it duly arrived in the 66th minute when yet another precise pass from Hernandez released Alioski whose drive from a tight angle was beaten away by Federici but only into the path of Bamford who clinically smashed a half-volley into the bottom right corner.

Stoke were 3-0 down and going nowhere with the prospect of worse to come as Bielsa brought on Arsenal loanee England under-21s striker Eddie Nketiah for Bamford and then summer marquee signing Helder Costa for Hernandez.

In actual fact, it was one of Stoke’s three second-half substitutes Tom Ince who was the next to threaten with two low attempts which were both safely held by Whites keeper Kiko Casilla in pursuit of a fourth clean sheet in a row.

Ince’s efforts were greeted by sarcastic cheers by the 3,000 travelling Whites fans who would have had a fourth goal to celebrate in the 82nd minute but for a brilliant save from Federici to tip a curling effort from Costa behind for a corner after another intricate passing move.

From the resulting set piece, Federici then tipped a low drive from Klich around the opposite post before Nketiah showed sublime skill to take a high ball from the air and turn his marker in one movement before racing towards goal.

Nketiah was then fouled on the edge of the area moments later and up stepped the excellent Forshaw looking to finally bag his first goal for Leeds.

His strike hit the wall and Forshaw was again denied by Federici in added time when picked out in the area by Nketiah.

Hernandez’s passing took the main plaudits but Forshaw was equally brilliant.

One day he will score with the Liverpudlian now having gone 59 Leeds games without netting but not for the want of trying.

In any case, the team’s success matters most he said.

Another 41 games with football like this and Forshaw and Leeds could well be scoring automatic promotion to the Premier League come May.

Stoke City: Federici, Edwards, Lindsay, Collins, Etebo, McClean, Carter-Vickers (Allen 73), Clucas, Cousins, Duffy (Hogan 60), Gregory (Ince 73). Subs not used: Butland, Batth, Smith, Campbell.

Leeds United: Casilla, Dallas, White, Berardi, Alioski, Phillips, Forshaw, Klich (Shackleton 85), Harrison, Hernandez (Costa 80), Bamford (Nketiah 74). Subs not used: Meslier, Struijk, Gotts, McCalmont.

Referee: D England.

Attendance: 24,090 (2,913 Leeds).