Leeds United are in a torrid run of form ahead of taking on Aston Villa at Elland Road on Sunday. They are in desperate need of a result and need some luck to go their way this weekend to turn things around.
Daniel Farke is under pressure to save his job as Leeds manager. There are suggestions that if results do not improve in the next four games, the German will be shown the door by the 49ers.
Leeds will be taking on Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool during the next set of fixtures, which has piled the pressure on them to get a result at home against the Villans on Sunday.
They could be in for some luck on Sunday as Villa are sweating over the fitness of centre-back Ezri Konsa, who picked up a calf injury on England duty. However, the announcement of the match officials could have set off some alarm bells ringing at Elland Road.
Leeds have bitter memories from last season of the referee appointed for the Aston Villa game
Rob Jones has been appointed as the on-field referee for the game against Aston Villa at Elland Road on Sunday. Tim Wood and Nick Greenhalgh will be his assistants, and Leigh Doughty will be the fourth official.
Craig Pawson will be the VAR for the game, with Nick Hopton serving as his assistant.
Leeds have a decent record in games officiated by Jones. They have won nine of their 19 fixtures and have only lost five, where the 38-year-old has been in charge.
| Team ⚽ | Games 🏟️ | Wins ✅ | Losses ❌ | Draws ➖ | Yellow 🟨 | Red 🟥 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aston Villa | 21 | 6 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| Leeds United | 19 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
In fact, the only club he has overseen more often than Leeds is Aston Villa, 21 Villa matches compared to 19 for Leeds. So he’ll be a very familiar face for both sides on Sunday.
Villa have lost 10 of the 21 matches Jones has been in charge, so they could be far more wary of him against Leeds on Sunday.
However, Leeds have bitter memories from last season when Jones made a slew of errors in their 1-0 defeat against Portsmouth in the Championship, which threatened to derail their promotion campaign.
It was a poor performance from Leeds, but the Whites should have been awarded a penalty when Dan James was clearly fouled inside the box.
However, Jones waved away all protests, and the calamity of errors he committed during the game earned him serious criticism from all corners.
Leeds did get lucky with Jones in the Premier League
They have an overall decent record in games officiated by Jones, despite the recent bitter memory from the Championship last season.
However, Leeds have some fond recollections of the 38-year-old as well and in November 2020, the Whites had the rub of the green going for them against Burnley.
A 1-0 win over Burnley at Elland Road saw Jones make a few more errors, but this time in favour of Leeds.
Leeds were given a penalty for a foul on Patrick Bamford by then Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope, despite appearing as if he did touch the ball.
Bamford converted the spot-kick for the only goal of the game.
Later in the match, Jones ruled out Ashley Barnes’ goal for an alleged foul by Ben Mee on Ilan Meslier, even though replays suggested it was the goalkeeper who had actually fouled Mee.
Leeds need some of the luck from that game if they have to get a result against Aston Villa on Sunday.
