Plymouth Argyle v Leeds United: Daniel Farke seeking to avoid dramas at Theatre of Greens

The team who suffered was, of course, Southampton, whose proud 25-match unbeaten sequence in all competitions ended at Bristol City.

Leeds United were the gleeful beneficiaries after a handsome 4-0 win across the Severn Bridge in Swansea on the very same night.

While time was called on Saints’ outstanding feat, Leeds’ own awesome numbers remain intact. They have won seven Championship matches in a row and are yet to drop a point in 2024.

Daniel Farke’s side make their second trip to Home Park in the space of 11 days, buoyed not only by events in midweek, but with memories of their 4-1 FA Cup replay success in Plymouth also relatively fresh in the minds.

For his part, Farke - who has been around the second-tier look enough to know that nothing can ever be taken for granted – is cautious. With good reason.

After the red side of Bristol claimed the scalp of Southampton, he has no plans on the green side of Devon doing the same to his own side ahead of Leeds’ first visit to Argyle for a league match since November 2006.

Farke, who labelled his side’s performance at Swansea as the most ‘perfect’ one of the season so far, said: “If you have a run of seven games in a row in the league with seven wins and many, many clean sheets, you can’t win more than 21 points in seven games.

"I know it’s pretty close to perfect. But there’s always a few challenges and details we want to improve and we have to be spot-on in each and every game.

"Winning 21 points in seven games won’t help us in the Plymouth game.

"They are perhaps even more ‘greedy’ and highly-motivated to be the first team to win points against us during this year.

"It (winning run) doesn’t help. It helps a bit in terms of confidence and rhythm that we believe in what we are doing - that’s good. But it never helps for the next game where we have to be at our best again.”

United may have put Plymouth to the sword in the driving rain in extra time on February 6, but Argyle’s home form at league level is worthy of serious respect.

Argyle, who reside in lower mid-table, have won eight Championship home matches so far this season and their goal tally of 38 on home soil is second only to Southampton.

They have not seen their colours lowered at league level at the Theatre of Greens since October 7 either.

That nine-game sequence has seen them find the net on an impressive 24 occasions.

Farke commented: “We are pretty respectful because it’s a side who have a really good home record in the league.

"It is a really, really difficult place to go. And in the last two cup games (against them), we were not able to beat them after 90 minutes.

"We know we have to be at our best to give ourselves a chance to win the points in this difficult away game.

"We are travelling with confidence and are highly motivated to get the next points under our belts.

"But we also know that at the moment, at least, it is one of the toughest places to go, otherwise they wouldn’t be unbeaten (in the league) since October.

"We need a top, top performance and the backing of our travelling support, which was second to none in the last games.”