Leeds United’s relegation worries now feel very distant.
Indeed, the Whites have turned around their Premier League fortunes in quite some style this December, with two wins and three draws collected, as Daniel Farke’s men were more than good value for a 1-1 draw away at Sunderland on Sunday afternoon.
In particular, Farke would have been over the moon with how quick a start his Leeds side made to the second half, after finding themselves one goal down when Simon Adingra fired home a sumptuous effort for the Black Cats to gift them a slim first-half advantage.
The German just knows he can rely on Dominic Calvert-Lewin to deliver the goods, as the lethal Englishman has now put away a stunning seven goals across his last six appearances for his new club, after firing home a well-worked team move on Wearside.
Calvert-Lewin's undroppable status
All 11 Leeds players on the Stadium of Light turf would touch the ball in the build-up to the ex-Everton marksman beating Robin Roefs, with Calvert-Lewin thankfully possessing that potent edge to get the better of the Dutchman.
The 28-year-old is arguably in the form of his life at the moment, with only three Premier League strikes coming his way last season on Merseyside.
Now, he’s already eight league goals down for the campaign from 12 starts, after firing home that “exceptional” team goal, as it was labelled by scout Antonio Mango.
Nobody else comes close in the Leeds goalscoring charts, with the 6-foot-2 target-man surely one of the first names on Farke’s team sheet at the moment, after the ex-Norwich City boss hailed him as “unbelievable” when scoring against Brentford earlier in the jam-packed month.
The worry will be that Calvert-Lewin will eventually come unstuck, but for the time being, Leeds need to bask in the glory of their star man’s goalscoring heroics, as more and more crucial points are secured in their bid to beat the drop.
It wasn’t just red-hot number nine that stood out on the road at Sunderland, however, as another star in Leeds’ attacking ranks continues to rewrite his Elland Road narrative, after nearly being chucked to one side in the summer.
The Leeds star who's now undroppable
Leeds secured several big signings in the off-season, with Anton Stach one of those new recruits who has instantly hit the ground running, as seen in him winning ten duels and amassing three key passes against Regis Le Bris’ hosts.
The worry for Brenden Aaronson, when viewing all these new signings coming in, is that he would no longer have the same game time that was afforded to him in the Championship, with TEAMTalk speculating in March, before the second-tier campaign was even over, that Farke’s eventual champions were considering offloading the American.
Fast forwarding to the present, Leeds will be glad that they didn’t part ways with the ex-RB Salzburg playmaker, with Leeds’ upturn in form also seeing Aaronson come into his own in the Premier League, in a division where he has been previously criticised as being “really disappointing” by ex-Whites player Jon Newsome.
This season, however, he is doing a lot to win back his vocal critics, with Aaronson now up to three assists – which sees him lead the assist charts for Farke and Co. – after delivering a perfect ball for Calvert-Lewin to latch onto to fire home at the Stadium of Light.
Aaronson’s performance in numbers
Stat
Aaronson
Minutes played
90
Goals scored
0
Assists
1
Touches
55
Shots
3
Accurate passes
31/37 (84%)
Key passes
5
Big chances created
2
Stats by Sofascore
The reenergised American was also desperately unlucky not to beat Roefs himself in the first half, as a fierce effort was somehow cleared off the line by a dogged Trai Hume, with the table above also illuminating the fact that he accumulated a weighty five key passes from his 55 touches of the ball.
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With five duels won against Crystal Palace showing off a different atttritional side to his varied game, it’s clear that Aaronson is very much a valued member of Farke’s starting XI, and another figure worthy of a concrete starting spot, just like the free-flowing Calvert-Lewin.
He would proudly hold the Premier League player of the match accolade at the full-time whistle, with Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Graham Smyth stating, after the game, that Aaronson ‘worked his socks off’ throughout in what was a challenging away test, when gifting him a high 8/10 post-match rating.
The £45k-per-week midfielder will just hope he can kick on even more and keep the assists coming, as more wins and draws are possibly collected towards the foot of the division to pull Leeds even further away from the bottom three.
"Signing of the season" – TalkSport man lauds Leeds star, not Calvert-Lewin
The Whites drew 1-1 against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday afternoon.
ByDominic Lund