Leeds United Premier League credentials underlined in Chelsea defeat as 'relish' prediction made

Leeds United would be ready to make their mark on the Premier League, should they win promotion from the Championship this season. That's the belief of Jobi McAnuff, who saw enough from the Whites' performance against Chelsea on Wednesday to be convinced of their ability to mix it at the top level.

United lost the game at Stamford Bridge 3-2, with a 90th minute effort from Conor Gallagher proving to be the difference between the two sides on the night as Chelsea progressed to the FA Cup quarter-finals and Leeds fell to their first defeat of the calendar year. However, Daniel Farke's side opened the scoring early through Mateo Joseph and, after the England U20 international's equaliser in the second half, they had chances to win the game in the capital.

Leeds had the Blues, who were beaten in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, wobbling as they pushed and asked questions of the expensively assembled Londoners. Ultimately, it wasn't to be for Leeds, but McAnuff believes their performance was evidence enough to suggest Leeds would be able to compete at the top level.

"I thought they were fantastic, obviously they started brightly and then to find themselves trailing is obviously a difficult position to get in," McAnuff said as part of ITV's coverage of the game. "They reacted really well and in the second half they were fantastic.

"We said before the game that they want to get back to this level and I think they showed today, if they can finish off the season and what they're doing in the Championship, that they'll relish coming to places like this.

"What [Farke] has got is an incredible group of attacking players and we saw that again today. Jaidon Anthony's contribution to the game was fantastic, Dan James coming in on the other side, no Georginio Rutter, who has been brilliant, tonight.

"Probably just lacked a little bit of quality at times, but real good options in those forward areas and that's one of the reasons they've been so good in the Championship."