Monday analysis: Leeds United prevail as Elland Road shows itself in all its glory

No gunpowder, treason and plot here, but anarchy all the same.

This was a game that Elland Road throws up every so often and for that, we should all be grateful. More’s the pity this wonderfully atmospheric old stadium will now lay low for almost two months for the World Cup. But what a way to go.

The facts are that Leeds came out on the right side to register successive Premier League wins for the first time since March. Few are quite sure how, but this is Leeds United.

Jesse Marsch did not overly celebrate. He had the look of someone who did not know whether to laugh or cry, in truth.

Asked after the game if he enjoyed this victory or the one at Liverpool the previous weekend, he instantly said ‘no’ and he was not bluffing.

Marsch could have basked in the glow of two excellent substitutions in his post-match musings. He very shrewdly didn’t.

He looked exhausted after witnessing the sort of spectacle that managers hate with training ground work in the working week fired into the stratosphere rather than merely thrown out of the window.

For the second successive weekend, Crysencio Summerville was the story after providing an encore to that marvellous denouement at Anfield. Yet there was so much more.

His good mate Wilfried Gnonto for one. Summerville turned 21 seven days earlier. Gnonto celebrated his 19th birthday on Saturday.

Like Summerville, he has come of age in a footballing sense with the pair collaborating for the winner and another Elland Road moment for the ages. The top-flight’s glitterati may regret not taking a punt on Signor Gnonto.

With his side handed stick at half-time by way of a welter of boos and when Bournemouth scored a third goal which was by no means flattering, Marsch kept his head and that was at least something.

Gnonto’s introduction changed the narrative. The decision to hook Marc Roca, who waded through treacle as he chased Marcus Tavernier in the build-up to Bournemouth’s third goal and bring on Sam Greenwood, was equally effective.

Leeds supporters sang about Gnonto being powered by ‘spaghetti and Moretti’ and another hero had arrived on the stage. But the emotional fuel came from the loyalists in a crazy game that summed up this club’s ‘ups and downs’ over the past few decades in particular.

The final act came when Gnonto - who caused the opposition all manner of bother as did Leeds-born Marcus Tavernier on the other side - splendidly set up Summerville for the game-breaker. All was well again.

Summerville, with no hint of understatement, said: “It was a bit sloppy in the first half.

"But you can see that the group believes and fights for each other. The second-half was just crazy. Like against Liverpool, I don’t know what I have with these late winners. But it was a very important one.

“This was the last home game (before the break) and the crowd felt like a 12th man. They were incredible and it helped us a lot.”

How the game ended up 4-3 will cause Bournemouth interim manager Gary O’Neil sleepless nights.

The Cherries started like a side who had conceded 20 goals in their previous six away games. Leeds’s awful defending then plumbed the depths before Bournemouth reverted to type. At 3-1 it should have been over. But this is Leeds.

The tale of the tape was this.

A panicking challenge by Marcos Senesi on Summerville got the ball rolling, with Rodrigo netting from the spot on three minutes. It was the cue for Leeds to implode defensively, not Bournemouth.

Four minutes later, the Cherries were level. Philip Billing’s cross was flicked on by Robin Koch and Leeds were asleep at the side door. Tavernier nipped in to volley home.

Leeds were undressed a couple of times before the inevitable happened.

Senesi made amends for his early error with his fine diagonal catching Rasmus Kristensen napping to send Tavernier away. Illan Meslier beat out his fierce strike, but the ex-Middlesbrough man retrieved the ball to tee up Billing, who leathered home into the top corner.

Bournemouth had chances to kill the game that were passed up before Tavernier set up Dominic Solanke.

It looked all over. But this is Leeds. Greenwood curled home a beauty for a picture-book first league goal and you started to wonder.

Liam Cooper headed in Greenwood's corner at the back post to level it up and ran straight back to the centre circle to get on with it.Dynamism from Gnonto then set up Summerville and the roof came off. Never mind the fireworks outside.

Leeds United: Meslier; Kristensen, Koch, Cooper, Struijk, Adams, Roca (Greenwood 54), Harrison (Gnonto 45), Aaronson (Ayling 86), Summerville, Rodrigo (Gelhardt 81). Unused substitutes: Klaesson, Firpo, Llorente, Klich, Joseph.

Bournemouth: Travers; A Smith, Mepham, Senesi (Rothwell 88); Fredericks (Stacey 73), Cook, Lerma, Billing (Stanislaus 88), Tavernier; Solanke, Moore. Unused substitutes: Stephens, Christie, Pearson, Anthony, Zemura, Plain.