WBA v Leeds – 29th Dec 2020

Well, after everything that we’ve said and seen, I thought that was the best performance of the season so far at West Brom.

We made it back-to-back victories, two clean sheets, and confidence should be high again now. It was more impressive that such a performance came against a team who were a rival of sorts. Like with Burnley, it was important from the point of view that it was three points against a team who are below us.

Luke Ayling stood out again for me and I don’t think he gets enough credit for what he does. He’s learning all the time, he’s getting better and better all the time. He’s very methodical and an unsung hero for me. Stuart Dallas is the other who impressed again. You know what you’re going to get from them. They have a really great work ethic. Even at four and five-nil they were still looking to win challenges and headers.

You could have picked anyone really tough because they were all outstanding. They showed some real pace and confidence last night and that is really hard to play against. At 5-0 up we were pressing for more and never looked like we going to sit back, but equally we looked like we wanted a clean sheet which was really pleasing. We also had four different scorers which was good to see because it’s important that players chip in with goals.

West Brom were outclassed. They went to Anfield and get a good result then they lose 5-0 to a team who got promoted with them last season. It could have been seven or eight. You could see from Sam Allardyce’s body language after the own goal went in, he looked so deflated. And it was like they gave up. It didn’t look like a Sam Allardyce team at all. They didn’t show anything, and I think that shows how good Leeds were against them. I felt they had a bit of cockiness about West Brom before the game with a few things that had been said, and they went and got battered.

Leeds have got back on a good path again now. Marcelo seems to be getting the right reaction from the players. I saw his frustration when Meslier made a mistake, and then you saw the keeper react to that himself later in the game which is what you want. There looks to be a great spirit and desire to do well for each other. I said after the Newcastle win I thought we would be safe and with these two back-to-back wins, there’s no doubt about that.

I’m sure we could still be hit by some heavy defeats, but it looks like they have shored things up a bit after the Man United game, and I think we can all look forward again now.