Leeds United are on an upward trajectory, but defeat to 'them' still hurt - Daniel Chapman

And we had let ourselves get all excited, too.

We were hyped up to be happy, giddy for some relief.

Ready for something to celebrate at the end of an awful year, a moment to cherish when getting people together to make memories has been so hard for so long.

We were ready for a party. All we got was clowns.

But enough about the government cancelling Christmas.

This isn’t a political column.

This is a Leeds United column being written on Monday morning after Leeds United lost by... I’m not going to say the score.

And lost to... I’m not going to name the team.

The sun has not risen over Leeds this morning.

The sky is offering gloom and gloom only, same as its namesake TV channel between 4.30pm and 6.30pm on Sunday.

For breakfast all I wanted was chocolate biscuits and crying. But I didn’t have any biscuits.

The pragmatic arguments about Sunday’s game have a lot of value and I will make a lot of them, but pragmatism is also bizarre, given how we’re using it to defend such chaotic, impractical football.

The Premier League sucks us into Burnley’s mentality, thinking about accumulating points but never about climbing the table, and we end up consoling ourselves the same as them.

In the long run, we’ll avoid relegation.

In the long run, we’ll win games playing this way.

In the long run, this will all be worthwhile.

The bottom half of the Premier League all feel that way.

In the meantime Leeds are dealing with lunacy Burnley fans will never understand.

While Lancastrians are frightened of the moon, we’re at war with it.

And in the short term, our mouths are filled with a winter of grit.

The long term view is true and more important.

Leeds United are on an upward trajectory towards new training grounds, new stadium capacity, more expensive players, European football.

It’ll all take years, but is happening faster than our 16-year promotion ever did.

Our intense ascent can’t afford setbacks. Leeds have to stay up.

Results against last season’s top six are almost irrelevant.

The point we got from Manchester’s blue half is a valuable bonus.

But our rivalry with the red half has a long term of its own, and that’s causing the pain behind the brave face.

The pre-match videos and interviews weren’t about avoiding relegation to sustain a long-term sporting infrastructure project.

They were about bragging rights to start a new chapter of an old rivalry, while protecting the history of our rose on rose battles.

From that point of view, the final score doesn’t bear looking at.

It’s not unprecedented. Leeds have put five past them three times.

Before Sunday the reverse was only true twice, although one was the fixture’s biggest margin: 6-0 to the home team at Old Trafford in 1959.

The season before had finished 5-0. 4-0 before that. Which repeated the FA Cup result in 1951.

In fact, after World War Two, two draws were the best Leeds got until 1964.

No, I’m not trying to cheer you up.

Those games are forgotten now, overtaken by the history that came later.

That’s why losing si— ...losing by such a big scoreline now feels so devastating. It doesn’t only affect this week.

It changes how history feels.

I always thought January 3, 2010 would last forever, never to be repeated unless the Reds get relegated to League One and draw us in the cup, which I always encouraged them to try. Now they don’t need to.

Can we still sing about remembering the date with the same enthusiasm, remembering what came next?

When Jermaine Beckford talks about his goal, will his face still light up now he knows what the follow-up question will be about?

Can we still feel the same about what was, and is, one of the few proud moments of our wilderness years?

That’s what such a big defeat means in such a big game. It hurts the past, too.

If there’s any solace, it’s that Marcelo Bielsa knows it.

That was him before the game, gleefully recalling the fierce derbies between Newell’s Old Boys and Rosario Central.

That was him, talking about the extra responsibility of performing for expectant fans.

And that was him, 30 years ago, analysing his own soul when a Newell’s defeat was affecting him more than the poor health of his infant daughter.

Bielsa had to fight himself to regain perspective.

But he’s never forgotten that an irrational loss of common sense is common to football fans around a big game.

Three thoughts to make us feel better.

One, Marcelo Bielsa at Thorp Arch, calmly analysing the match with the staff, planning ways to improve.

Two, Marcelo Bielsa at home in Wetherby, alarming his neighbours by screaming into a bin all night about the unprintable things he’d like to do to Scott McTominay, swearing revenge at Elland Road in April.

And three: there’s always a next time.

Rivalry, and history, doesn’t stand still.

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/issues-both-ends-perspective-needed-marcelo-bielsas-newly-promoted-whites-leeds-united-talking-points-3075365

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/yorkshire-evening-post-launch-leeds-united-only-digital-subscription-ahead-premier-league-campaign-2967964

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Thank you Laura Collins