Henderson remembers late friend Jota in grim arm-wrestle

This was a game to reflect the tyranny of analytics-based football, where thought and expression are abandoned for the playbook, set pieces rule, and long throws become key events.

- John Brewin

For Brentford’s Michael Kayode, read Leeds’s Ethan Ampadu, both taking an age before hurling the ball into a mass of bodies, before the ball was bundled away. How long can this tactic stay in vogue, now that every Premier League side is so well prepared?

Scoring from open play remains a valid tactic and from such a situation Rico Henry set up Jordan Henderson to score his first goal in English football since 2021, via a deflection off the Leeds defender Jaka Bijol. In turn, Leeds found their deserved equaliser from open play, Dominic Calvert-Lewin heading home Wilfried Gnonto’s cross. Henry and Gnonto, both substitutes, had added dabs of quality to a previously constipated contest.

“an old-school game, quite direct?” Keith Andrews said, the Brentford manager embracing understatement.

“Great resilience to come back,” said the Leeds manager, Daniel Farke, who was satisfied enough. “Great performance and could have been better with the outcome.”