Title race fans might assume this is a weekend Manchester City narrow the five-point gap to Arsenal. With Pep Guardiola\u2019s side visiting newly-promoted Leeds United and the league leaders hosting Club World Cup champions Chelsea, the basic assessment is one has a far easier fixture than the other.<\/p>\n
Arsenal supporters may have little faith in what Daniel Farke\u2019s side are capable of, having seen their team dispatch the West Yorkshire outfit by an aggregate score of 9-0 this season. However, they may not want to so easily disregard what this Leeds team is like once the sun\u2019s gone down.<\/p>\n
In the 24 league or play-off matches Leeds have hosted after 5pm since August 2023, they are yet to taste defeat. Under Farke, United have won 20 and drawn four when the floodlights are on at Elland Road.<\/p>\n
The home record since Farke arrived in July 2023 is generally good, whatever the time of kick-off. But this is weighted by the first two years of his tenure, which were spent as one of the dominant forces in the Championship, so they only lost three of his first 47 \u2014 including a win in the 2024 play-off semi-final \u2014 home league games.<\/p>\n
In 2025-26, the difference has been more stark. There have been seven post-5pm kick-offs, with Leeds winning five (71 per cent) and drawing two. There have been six before 5pm, with only one win (17 per cent), two draws and three losses.<\/p>\n
Farke was asked about it in his pre-match press conference on Thursday. He half-joked it may be because he is something of a night owl and his pre-match speeches are more impactful, but then pressed on with the more serious theories he had.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps, (it\u2019s because) we are a very passionate club and my players are driven by their emotions, by their spirit,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you could always feel, when the floodlights are on, everyone is in a good mood and the weekend is ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps, instead of everyone is in the stadium with a hangover for a lunchtime kick-off, you feel even a bit more (of a) special atmosphere (under the floodlights).<\/p>\n
\u201cMy players, it\u2019s not like they have already all won 20 titles. They are all still on the way to go up the hill in their careers, and not like it\u2019s just about the next contract and to earn a bit of money.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are unbelievably hungry and greedy. If they have the feeling, \u2018Okay, everyone is on it, and our fans are buzzing\u2019, they are even more motivated to do this.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like our motivation and our spirit on nights like this is even more special. It\u2019s the relationship between a very hungry, very greedy squad and a special atmosphere at Elland Road.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n\n Leeds\u2019 record in the Premier League under Farke at home is much better at night (Robbie Jay Barratt \u2013 AMA\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The noise has been something else in home games for Leeds this season. The bar was set high in the second tier, when they beat promotion rivals like Leicester City and Sunderland, but this season during the wins over Chelsea and Nottingham Forest \u2014 or the draw with Liverpool \u2014 the crowd has gone to another level.<\/p>\n At the end of 2025, Joe Rodon told The Athletic<\/em> he had never heard anything as loud as the reaction to Ao Tanaka\u2019s equaliser to make it 3-3 against Liverpool. What must it be like for the opposition walking into this bearpit?<\/p>\n One of the few opposition bosses who has taken points home with them from a visit to Elland Road under the floodlights is Mike Dodds. He is currently on the backroom staff at Oxford United in the Championship, but was interim head coach when Sunderland visited in April 2024.<\/p>\n There were five matches remaining in the 2023-24 season. Leeds were going for automatic promotion, and the Wearside outfit had little to play for in mid-table. The home crowd, anxious about a recent blip in results, expected a home win, but had to watch United muster one shot on target in a frustrating 0-0 draw.<\/p>\n Dodds recalls his emotions when he arrived that night. Speaking to The Athletic<\/em>he remembers how loudly the fans sang club anthem Marching on Together.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m stood at the side of the pitch at Elland Road, by myself, and I just remember the song, going, \u2018Oh yeah, this is proper, this is football\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a proper football club.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always got a real soft spot for Leeds. I\u2019ve always got a real little bit of love for them. They\u2019ve got that modern twist every football club needs in terms of they\u2019ve moved forward with the times, but they\u2019ve kept a hold on their history and their heritage.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s a sellout in the warm-ups, but I remember we went out to warm up, and the amount of people already at their seats in the warm-up\u2026 You can always tell a big game by the warm-up because you have a lot of people in the seats, but that was just a league game under the lights and there were so many people.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember walking in after the warm-up, going, \u2018It\u2019s going to be a good night\u2019. I remember sitting on the coach (after the game) and I just puffed my cheeks, \u2018What a night that was\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cSunderland travel really well, but the Leeds fans were so loud. So loud. People say, \u2018Why do you want to be a head coach?\u2019 It\u2019s for those nights, they\u2019re the nights you want to do it for.\u201d<\/p>\n The emotion of nights like that, Dodds admits, can be hard for the manager in the dugout when they need to make calm decisions.<\/p>\n Tony Mowbray, a highly-regarded manager of more than 800 matches, made an apt comparison for Dodds, who could not help feeling that way in the flow of that April night inside Elland Road.<\/p>\n \u201cTony Mowbray told me football\u2019s a pantomime with heroes and villains, you\u2019re just dancing along to the fans\u2019 tune a little bit,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to accept the fact that sometimes you\u2019re a hero, sometimes you\u2019re a villain, but I always remember nights like that.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing, but it\u2019s not real life. Sometimes, if you can keep a grip on this, it\u2019s incredible, but it is an entertainment business.<\/p>\n \u201cI always remember some of the games where I\u2019d get emotional, I\u2019ll be like, \u2018Come on, this is just a sport, think logically, don\u2019t get wrapped up in the crowd\u2019. It is hard.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really, really difficult, but when you\u2019re stood by the side of the pitch, you do have to try and detach yourself from what\u2019s going on. It\u2019s important to get wrapped up in it as well because some of the best games are when it\u2019s emotional.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always a really hard balance to find, where you want to feed off the emotion, but you also want to make really clever, logical decisions within the emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n Many visitors, especially in the Championship as underdogs, have come to Elland Road planning to spoil the game, to take the sting out of the crowd with a disrupted, morale-sapping opening 20 minutes. What they don\u2019t want to do, as Dodds vividly recalls, is give the crowd any reason to build up a head of steam.<\/p>\n Dodds is asked if he remembers any particular breaks or chances Leeds had that night which really made the ground shake.<\/p>\n \n Okafor and Bogle celebrating goals during the win over Nottingham Forest (Michael Regan\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He said: \u201cThere\u2019s one in the first half where we gave the ball away, and we always knew Daniel Farke\u2019s teams are good in transition, it was (Crysencio) Summerville (who shot), (Dan) Ballard blocked, and I remember turning around to the bench going, \u2018They\u2019re the moments we\u2019ve got to avoid\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember the noise after that was really, really loud. Elland Road\u2019s very unique and very special, but in all those places, every manager would say about quieting the crowd, game management, dark arts, are so important.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can take the emotion out of the stadium, you give yourself half a chance. If Elland Road gets wrapped up with the team, it\u2019s such a hard place to manage.\u201d<\/p>\n Scoring early might be a good route to manage Elland Road on Saturday. Asmir Begovic has been in the visiting squad on two previous trips to Leeds under the floodlights. In August 2022, he was on the bench for Everton, and he remembers the importance of Anthony Gordon opening the scoring in the 17th minute.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Everton, we scored and went up 1-0, which helps,\u201d he told The Athletic<\/em>. \u201cIf you go up, that just kind of settles the crowd down.\u201d<\/p>\n That was different when Begovic came to Elland Road with Queens Park Rangers in October 2023. Leeds took an early lead through Summerville, but Begovic managed to keep them from scoring any more: \u201cWe managed the game quite well with QPR, even though we went down to an early goal. To stay in the game and quieten the crowd down, that\u2019s the biggest thing.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re aware, as a player, if you go to Elland Road and you\u2019re down 2-0 after 15 minutes, it\u2019s a really, really long way back.\u201d<\/p>\n Begovic was incorrectly sent off in that game. He raced out of his area to meet Patrick Bamford, who was clean through on goal. Referee Tim Robinson saw Bamford go down, assumed the goalkeeper had taken him out and showed the red card.<\/p>\n Replays eventually showed there was no contact and the red card was ultimately rescinded, but Begovic is certain a raucous Elland Road played its part in the referee\u2019s decision that night.<\/p>\n Now 38, Begovic is with Leicester, but his career has taken him to football\u2019s best stadiums after featuring for Chelsea, Everton and Milan, among many others. Elland Road holds a special place in the sport, in his opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great stadium, Elland Road speaks for itself,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the traditional, iconic grounds that just comes to life a little bit more under the lights.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone, even fans, just feel a bit more of that atmosphere during a night game. I don\u2019t quite know why that always is, but things seem to be like that with most grounds.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving that under-the-lights feeling at Elland Road, how compact it is, how passionate the fans are, is always, actually, as a player, people think it\u2019s intimidating, is one we look forward to. We love and enjoy it, great atmosphere, really passionate fanbase that gets behind their team.\u201d<\/p>\n Could that intimidation factor be a positive for City \u2014 or a negative? Arsenal fans will be watching with hope, not least because of the record that has come before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Title race fans might assume this is a weekend Manchester City narrow the five-point gap to Arsenal. 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