Just as Leeds seemed poised to celebrate a significant victory, a catastrophic error from Daniel Farke’s goalkeeper Illan Meslier allowed substitute Alan Browne to capitalize and secure Sunderland the point that keeps Régis Le Bris’s side at the top of the Championship. A crowd of 41,769 were thoroughly entertained by the River Wear, and Le Bris received a reminder that his exciting young Sunderland side remains a work in progress, while the pressure on Farke was eased by some wonderful wing play from Willy Gnonto.
Chris Rigg, still only 17, is already proving a magnet for scouts from Europe’s leading clubs. Part of the attraction is his ability to blend central midfield enforcement with some exquisite passing and the useful knack of advancing to score a few vital goals. In the ninth minute, he probably added a few more millions to his price tag by emphasizing his mastery of the latter knack. Although Meslier made an excellent save to repel Dennis Cirkin’s shot, Rigg was in the right place at the right time to lash the rebound home from close range.
Le Bris remains very much a mentor to Meslier after coaching the Leeds goalkeeper in Lorient’s academy in their native Brittany. However, on the eve of kick-off here, Sunderland’s manager said that, for once, he hoped to see his former protégé picking the ball out of the net. Yet, having been granted that wish, Le Bris could not exactly afford to relax. Leeds were clearly anxious to atone for the defensive concentration lapse that had left Cirkin unmarked and swiftly equalized when Joël Piroe expertly lost his marker and headed a cross from an arguably offside Gnonto beyond a helpless Anthony Patterson. It was the first goal Sunderland had conceded at the Stadium of Light this season.
Farke’s team had initially seemed cowed in the face of Sunderland’s blistering start but suddenly they were not so much ascendant as firmly in control, and Le Bris’s players found themselves forced to retreat en masse. Farke must have been delighted with the way Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell were dictating a central midfield department in which Rigg and his talented 19-year-old fellow midfielder, Jobe Bellingham, at times looked like the inexperienced teenagers they are. Had Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev not been injured, Tanaka and Rothwell would have been on the bench, but, thrown into the deep end, they displayed a reassuring determination to avoid sinking.
Not to mention helping ensure that, bar watching a deflected Bellingham shot whiz fractionally wide of an upright, Meslier had rather less to do than might initially have been expected. Bellingham was booked for a foul on Piroe at the outset of the second half, but generally Sunderland appeared slightly reluctant to get into the visitors’ faces, let alone press Leeds high up the pitch and risk coming undone on the counterattack. Maybe this willingness to stand off Farke’s players at times was a sensible strategy because, as the new half unfolded and with Patrick Roberts increasingly racing down the right wing, Le Bris’s team gradually began taking a few risks, Leeds pounced on the break.
Significantly, no one was shadowing the visiting left-back Junior Firpo as he accelerated into the area and after exchanging passes with Gnonto, swept a left-foot shot beyond Patterson’s reach. Sunderland fans complained that Largie Ramazani had handled the ball as he controlled it before laying off to Firpo in the goal’s preamble, but their team’s struggle to cope with Gnonto’s quick feet and faster brain was at the root of their problems. Rigg soon found himself booked for fouling the Italian winger and was subsequently substituted for late goalscorer Browne.
By then, the power balance had shifted again, this time tilting in Sunderland’s favour as Leeds strove to sit back and hold on for the win as Romaine Mundle rampaged down the left flanks. Farke’s body language betrayed a certain anxiety that was about to be justified as Meslier did his old friend Le Bris an unwanted favour.
