Preview: Chelsea vs Leeds United | OneFootball

Leeds United travel to London on Tuesday evening to face Chelsea, on the back of a brilliant 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

On Friday, Leeds raced out to a 2-0 first half lead thanks to goals from Jayden Bogle – his first in the Premier League for United – and Noah Okafor, before their second half dominance rewarded the home side with a third as Elland Road roared.

Midfielder Ilia Gruev delivered a dangerous ball into the box and Dominic Calvert-Lewin inventively stooped to earn his tenth goal of the season as the Bulgarian recorded a second assist of the night.

Victory over the Reds marked the Whites’ fourth in their last seven home matches, a stretch that also included statement wins over Crystal Palace, Fulham and our next opponents, Chelsea.

In their previous away encounter, Leeds were forced to settle for a point on Merseyside as Everton cancelled out James Justin’s opener in a 1-1 draw.

The Whites are currently 16th in the table after the first 25 matches and now face the side against which they produced another memorable 3-1 performance in early December, with Jaka Bijol, Ao Tanaka and Calvert-Lewin on the scoresheet.

Since that memorable encounter under the Elland Road lights, Daniel Farke’s side have just two losses in eleven games in all competitions.

The Blues are currently fifth in the Premier League, 14 points above the Whites after a positive turnaround under new boss Liam Rosenior, appointed a month ago.

Under the former Hull City and Strasbourg coach, Chelsea have already picked up seven wins, including against Italian champions Napoli in the UEFA Champions League, in which they advanced to the Round of 16 following a league phase that saw them take 16 points from 8 fixtures.

Despite a winter run – beginning at Elland Road – in which the London side won just one in eight in the league, the Blues are a fierce side at home. Their only losses at Stamford Bridge since October have come against league leaders Arsenal and third placed Aston Villa.

Over the decades, there have been many memorable, often fiery encounters between the Whites and the Blues dating back to their first meeting in 1927.

Leeds and Chelsea have met one another 104 times with the Whites winning 39 and drawing 28 of those matches. Most memorably in recent times, aside from the clash in December, United beat the Blues 3-0 in 2022, with Brenden Aaronson opening the scoring.

Action from Stamford Bridge gets underway at 7:30pm and you can follow it all across leedsunited.com, as well as on LUTV.

A memorable meeting:

Team News:

Ahead of the match, Farke says he expects to have a similar squad available from last time out, barring Pascal Struijk who is a doubt with a slight hip problem.

Alongside Struijk, Anton Stach remains sidelined, but positive news came as the German admitted defender Bijol is back in contention to feature, with Calvert-Lewin and Gruev also in line to play.

How to follow:

Monthly audio subscribers around the world can listen to every minute of Friday’s fixture LIVE on LUTV. Bryn Law will be joined by Tony Dorigo on commentary. Pre-match build up begins at 7pm with Michael Bridges and Dom Matteo in the studio! The match has also been selected for television coverage in the UK by TNT Sports.

The view from inside the camp:

Speaking exclusively to Premier League Productions, captain Ethan Ampadu said: “We learn from all results, all games, and try to improve the next week.

“So now is another chance to do that. We have another game coming up where we have to put in our best performance and go again. Our sole focus for the rest of the season is on each game and making sure that we put in our best performances to deliver results in every single game.

“There was a lot of belief in this group right from the very start until now. We fully believe that we can achieve what we want to achieve.”

Read the full interview HERE.

Important supporter information:

Digital ticketing will become a mandatory requirement for all existing Premier League clubs by no later than Season 2026/27. Newly promoted clubs will have a period of two years to implement its use upon joining the League. Therefore, as part of our transition to being fully digital, our ticket allocation for the Chelsea away fixture will be digital NFC tickets.

A digital NFC ticket will be emailed to each ticket holder. Once the deadline for away ticket refunds has passed, digital tickets will be sent out no later than close of business on Thursday 5th February. Digital tickets can only be downloaded once. Please note, screenshots of digital tickets will not work.

All supporters are encouraged to arrive early for this game and ensure that they have downloaded their digital ticket to their Apple/Google wallet on their smartphone before arriving at Stamford Bridge.

Discriminatory language or chanting, including homophobic language, is not acceptable, and you could be breaking the law. The club condemns this behaviour and has a zero-tolerance policy towards discrimination abuse of all kinds.

Tough measures and sanctions are in place across all English football leagues to tackle dangerous and illegal behaviours within football grounds, and this involves but is not limited to, discriminatory behaviour, tragedy chanting, fans entering the pitch, the use of pyros and throwing objects.

More supporter information can be found HERE.

What has Daniel Farke said ahead of the match?

League position:

Top scorer:

Officials