Leeds United deserve their praise and have fantastic opportunity against fallible Manchester City - David Prutton

Leeds obviously went to champions Liverpool in their first game of the season and gave it a right good go and this is another fantastic opportunity for Leeds to see where they are at.

It will be tough and I don’t want to tempt fate here and then suddenly tune in tonight to find it’s 7-0 to City.

But given how City have started the season I think it’s a real opportunity for Leeds.

It’s a proper daunting game no matter when you play City but there were mistakes made against Leicester and it’s a team that at times can look supernatural but have looked fallible on a couple of occasions already this season.

Leeds can take heart from that but let’s not get carried away and let’s be honest as this is a team that can absolutely rip you to shreds if it has its best day.

But whilst I say this with a slight hint of hesitation, maybe just maybe defensively, this is a team that can be got at and the way that Leeds approach a football match means that they won’t sit back and they will do what Leeds do which is be fearless and attacking.

Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus are both out injured but do you really look at their side and say whoever is there is a centre forward and whoever is there is a no 9?

Pep Guardiola has played with one in midfield and with full-backs as midfielders. He is that fluid in his approach.

He is that open-minded so just because Aguero and Jesus are out doesn’t mean to say they have not got attacking threats all over the pitch.

It’s a truly wonderful football club and team that he has put together.

But given the way the Leicester game went and given the way the season has started there’s cause for cautious optimism definitely from Leeds’ point of view.

Leeds are now three games into the new season with six points on the board after last weekend’s 1-0 win at Sheffield United and if you were looking at what you realistically wanted after a three-game cycle then they are bang on it.

Yes, it could have been slightly different if they had managed to hold on against Liverpool and not given away a penalty late on.

But they have got to be extremely happy with the way they have started the season and extremely happy with the way that it has gone.

And it’s refreshingly nice that everything that is coming out of Leeds and the chat around it is not them saying we should be looking at this and should be looking at that.

It’s a case of them being happy with what they have done far and quietly confident but in no way boastful which I think stands them in good stead.

Fair play to them.

You have to try and look at it from an impartial point of view and I think Leeds are a team that are getting talked about because they are playing good football, they have got a very likable squad and they have got a manager who might have ruffled a few feathers since he has been in English football.

But fundamentally there is respect there for the way that he approaches a football match and a football team which I think is thoroughly well deserved and we will see that due respect come from Pep Guardiola tonight.

That’s why there is a lot of interest in it, plus it’s the story of a team that is very much on the rise after being in the doldrums for such a long period of time.

And everyone has their turn.

Everybody was raving about Sheffield United last year and it’s just the typical way that the football media and the way that people in football work.

By the same token if they get three or four bad results they will be getting battered, there can be no doubt about that at all.

That’s the way that it goes.

You take the rough with the smooth, it is prone to fashions and novelty and I think Leeds understand that.

Once again, it’s unfortunate that fans are not able to share all of this with them in the stadium.

But the feeling that I get is that Leeds are ecstatic to be back where they belong and if people say nice things then great, but if they don’t then they won’t necessarily care too much anyway.

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Thank you Laura Collins