poetically starting against the club at the centre of his universe<\/a>, was superb. He was one of many to struggle at Sheffield Wednesday in the Carabao Cup, but this was so much more promising.<\/p>\nThe hope had been he may be able to use his inside knowledge of the visitors to good effect. He never gave Bruno Guimaraes or Sandro Tonali a moment\u2019s rest, he read virtually their every move.<\/p>\n
Not only was he sticking his boot in and turning the ball over, but when he had it, we saw positive, forward, snappy passes that helped moved Leeds upfield. It\u2019s an encouraging start for the 27-year-old and he will need to build on it with the injuries Leeds have in the engine room.<\/p>\n
Beren Cross<\/p>\n
Newcastle need Woltemade, and fast<\/b><\/p>\n
Nick Woltemade, Newcastle\u2019s new record signing, was watching on from the stands at Elland Road. Finally, the club has a proper centre-forward and the Germany international cannot be integrated soon enough.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2232880111-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Nick Woltemade watches from the stands at Leeds (Serena Taylor\/Newcastle United via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
With no Alexander Isak, for obvious reasons, and Anthony Gordon suspended after his red card against Liverpool, Will Osula made his first Premier League start for Newcastle but, for all his raw potential and willingness to run, the Denmark Under-21 international is not an answer for the here and now.<\/p>\n
Osula had arguably the best chance of a moribund first half, in which the first shot on target for either side did not arrive until the 43rd minute. After picking up a ball from Jacob Ramsey, Osula took a couple of touches and then shot, but was denied by Gabriel Gudmundsson\u2019s block.<\/p>\n
Yet Osula, who was a goalscoring substitute against Liverpool, was also a source of frustration. In front of the dugout, Howe frequently berated him, pointing at where he should be standing or the space he should be running into. The 22-year-old has pace, but lacks tactical awareness.<\/p>\n
What Newcastle\u2019s position in the table might look like had Isak made himself available will forever be unknown, but it has undoubtedly had an impact. There was a hardening in attitude from the away end, from where there came chants of \u201cIsak\u2019s a ****, ole, ole.\u201d<\/p>\n
George Caulkin<\/p>\n
Leeds fans boo the Premier League anthem \u2014 but why?<\/b><\/p>\n
For the second home game in succession, Leeds United\u2019s fans gave the Premier League anthem an absolute hammering before Saturday\u2019s kick-off.<\/p>\n
As the two teams began shaking hands, Elland Road has to stick on the league\u2019s track of choice. There is little surprise it is audibly hated in these parts. It\u2019s a red rag to a bull, the definition of everything a Leeds supporter hates.<\/p>\n
Firstly, it\u2019s a rubbish tune. Secondly, it\u2019s forced the club\u2019s own anthem (\u2018Marching on Together\u2019) back in the running order to just before kick-off. Historically, it has been played as the teams have exited the tunnel and keeping it there would see it finished early for the league\u2019s MP3 file.<\/p>\n
Thirdly, perhaps most importantly, it represents The Establishment. The tune has been shoehorned into Premier League games as a marketing tool, a symbol of the \u2018product\u2019 England\u2019s top flight has become.<\/p>\n
Leeds fans don\u2019t like confusing their football for a \u2018product\u2019.<\/p>\n
Beren Cross<\/p>\n
What did Daniel Farke say?<\/p>\n
The Leeds boss was satisfied with his side\u2019s pugnacious performance against what he deems to be \u201cone of the best sides in the Premier League\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a side who has dominated on Monday (against Liverpool) with 11, but also with 10 men,\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cWe were pretty competitive and it was a tight game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made it difficult for Newcastle to have chances. This is always the base, and the next steps will follow, but I didn\u2019t expect that we would come right now. If we can keep this points average then I will organise my own bus tour next summer.<\/p>\n
What did Eddie Howe say?<\/p>\n
Newcastle\u2019s manager admitted his side had to improve in attacking areas and that he would be relieved when the transfer window was finally closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought defensively, we were very strong,\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cBut I think we\u2019ve got work to do at the other end of the pitch, which is really unlike us. When you lose the quality of players that we have from last season to this, you\u2019re going to suffer slightly.<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/b>I think we\u2019re really looking forward to that clarity (of the window closing). And then, of course, the noise around us, it couldn\u2019t have been easy for the players to handle that all through preseason. Once we have clarity on the squad, we\u2019ll move forward and I\u2019m sure we can do really well this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
What next for Leeds?<\/p>\n
Saturday, September 13:<\/strong> Fulham (Away), Premier League, 3pm UK, 10am ET<\/p>\nWhat next for Newcastle?<\/p>\n
Saturday, September 13:<\/strong> Wolves (Home), Premier League, 3pm UK, 10am ET<\/p>\n(Top photo: Jack Thomas\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were no goals and not much more inspiration at Elland Road as Leeds United and Newcastle United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,2922,3047,101,79,25711,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-385980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-leeds-united","10":"tag-newcastle-united","11":"tag-premier-league","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-sports-business","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115120374382141424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2232882586-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2232880866-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n