Never has that cliche about a ‘game of two halves’ felt more appropriate than in Leeds v Crystal Palace last Sunday.
The first half was so encouraging for Leeds. They were totally dominant, spurred on by their rampant supporters as they pressed well and played with plenty of width.
The full backs, Luke Ayling and Junior Firpo, were flying, and midfielders Weston McKennie and Marc Roca were landing tackles like heavyweight boxers throwing punches.
Forwards Luis Sinisterra, Patrick Bamford and Jack Harrison were peppering Palace’s goal with shots.
But the second half was a capitulation, one of the worst seen in Premier League history.
There was no desire, no urgency and no composure.
Leeds might as well have turned off the lights at Elland Road and gone home at half-time, so disastrous was their display after the break.
It was as if they had covered so much distance in the first 45 minutes that when it came to the second half, their tank was empty and there was no energy left to play that way.
Like Javi Gracia and Leeds’ coaches will have done — painfully, I might add — I watched a replay of the game in its entirety to study how and why this collapse happened.
Leeds took the lead through Bamford via a well-worked goal — one from the training ground.
But then, from the 35th minute, Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze started to see more of the ball. They are special players for Palace and Leeds suddenly looked vulnerable, conceding silly set-pieces.
It was from one such free-kick that Palace equalised in first-half stoppage time, knocking the wind out of Leeds’ sails. It got worse from there.
Leeds were attacking Elland Road’s Kop but were subdued as Olise and Eze took over.
Palace made it 2-1 with Olise gifted oceans of space by Pascal Struijk, who made a half-hearted attempt to stop his cross which was headed in by a flimsily-marked Jordan Ayew.
It became 3-1 as Olise, again afforded space, this time by Firpo, threaded a through ball into Eze.
Leeds’ defenders were petrified of Olise and Eze by this stage with the damage they were doing.
It quickly became 4-1 as Olise ran from deep in his own half, unchallenged, to create a four-versus-two before feeding Odsonne Edouard.
Then it was 5-1, as Will Hughes’s shot fell to Ayew, who was onside because Rasmus Kristensen hadn’t bothered pushing up with the rest of the defence. This was a total embarrassment and Palace’s players were giggling by the end, such was the ease with which they had beaten Leeds.
Gracia’s team now have two tough games, against Liverpool and Fulham, then follow Leicester and Bournemouth, two sides also in the relegation race.
That Palace loss was a huge wake-up call for Leeds. They need to provide their back four with protection and not be so obsessed with pressing, which may be a hangover from the Marcelo Bielsa era.
Leeds now live in hope that the calamitous collapse against Palace was a one-off as they aim to remain a Premier League club.