Patrick Bamford marked his first Leeds start of the season with the opening goal in a 3-0 win over struggling Birmingham at Elland Road.
It was far from the sort of free-flowing attacking football Leeds have been known for at home this season but it did not need to be against a fairly toothless Birmingham side.
The victory ended a run of two successive defeats for Daniel Farke’s side and increased the pressure on under-fire Birmingham boss Wayne Rooney, whose team continue to struggle at the wrong end of the Championship table.
Leeds claimed the lead just after half an hour as Bamford met a Dan James cross from the right with a perfectly timed header.
James doubled the home side’s lead in first-half stoppage time when his shot deflected past Birmingham goalkeeper John Ruddy.
Crysencio Summerville picked his spot for the third midway through the second half.
Dion Sanderson got in to block a Bamford shot as the home side threatened inside the first five minutes and was again in the right place to end a run by Georginio Rutter.
Birmingham were using the right wing to good effect and smart link-up play between Jay Stansfield and Oliver Burke almost saw the latter escape into open space and a run on goal.
Leeds were indebted to Joe Rodon’s covering interception to end a Siriki Dembele run behind the defence.
Summerville’s shot forced Ruddy into the game’s first real save after 25 minutes and James’ follow-up was blocked by Emmanuel Longelo.
Bamford opened the scoring with a well-placed header after 34 minutes as a James cross from the right picked out the striker and he rose above the Birmingham defence to head home.
Rodon again tidied up at the back to cut off Stansfield’s run as Birmingham tried to hit back on the break.
Ruddy got down to hold a James shot but was left helpless as the same player saw his stoppage-time effort deflect in off Lee Buchanan.
Leeds’ third-choice goalkeeper Kris Klaesson saved a Dembele shot to maintain his side’s two-goal advantage to the interval.
Birmingham should have pulled a goal back early in the second half as Dembele set Juninho Bacuna free with a pass on halfway. The finish was lacking as his chip over Klaesson was off target.
Ivan Sunjic fired just off target as Leeds failed to clear a corner before Bamford’s shot came back off the post and James’ follow-up hit Buchanan in the face with nearly an hour gone.
Leeds scored their third when Rutter set Junior Firpo away down the left and he pulled the ball back for Summerville to pick his spot from 12 yards.
Ruddy’s fingertip save denied Ethan Ampadu an injury-time fourth in what turned out to be a comfortable win for Leeds.
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli: Struggling Bianconeri grab last-gasp home draw
Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw at relegation-battling Udinese in Serie A on Monday after a stoppage-time goal by forward Isaac Success cancelled out a Victor Osimhen header.
Osimhen nodded home to give Napoli the lead in the 51st minute after Matteo Politano sent a lofted cross from the right into the middle of the box, and the Nigerian striker headed the ball in off the left post.
The Nigerian thought he doubled their advantage in the 80th minute, but his effort was ruled out for offside, before Success bundled in the leveller in stoppage time, netting from a Thomas Kristensen header.
Napoli moved up to eighth on 51 points from 35 games and are nine points behind both fifth-placed Atalanta and Roma, in sixth.
Data Debrief:
Osimhen is the third Napoli player to score in six matches in a row against a single team in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era, after Gonzalo Higuain against Lazio between 2013 and 2016 and Dries Mertens against Bologna between 2016 and 2019.
Despite fighting back to earn a point, Udinese have now failed to win three games under a new manager for the first time since August-September 2010 under Francesco Guidolin.
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