It is very much A Thing now, the idea that Leeds are the Premier League’s greatest purveyors of photosynthesis.
Their brilliance under the lights at Elland Road is mildly absurd: in 22 home games with a kick off of 7:45pm or later under Daniel Farke, their record is W20 D2 L0 F50 A11.
It is a phenomenon which accounts for five of their seven wins this season alone, with Everton, West Ham, Chelsea, Crystal Palace and now Nottingham Forest all wilting under a unique pressure in which Leeds thrive.
Sean Dyche embraced his Utter Woke Nonsense caricature before the game by saying that Elland Road “is like most grounds now” in that it is “not as hostile as they were 30 years ago”. But his players were not the first to seem entirely intimidated by it at night.
And they are unlikely to be the last either. Leeds have at least two more evening home games this season – against Sunderland and Brentford – and Farke’s “best supporters in this country” will already be gearing up to produce that “special atmosphere” again.
Leeds in league games under Farke at Elland Road kicking off at 7:45pm or later
Leeds 1-1 West Brom, August 2023
Leeds 1-0 QPR, October 2023
Leeds 3-1 Swansea, November 2023
Leeds 1-0 Norwich, January 2024
Leeds 3-1 Leicester, February 2024
Leeds 1-0 Stoke, March 2024
Leeds 3-1 Hull, April 2024
Leeds 0-0 Sunderland, April 2024
Leeds 4-0 Norwich, May 2024
Leeds 2-0 Sheffield United, October 2024
Leeds 2-1 Watford, October 2024
Leeds 3-0 Luton, November 2024
Leeds 3-1 Middlesbrough, December 2024
Leeds 2-0 Norwich, January 2025
Leeds 2-1 Sunderland, February 2025
Leeds 2-0 Millwall, March 2025
Leeds 4-0 Bristol City, April 2025
Leeds 1-0 Everton, August 2025
Leeds 2-1 West Ham, October 2025
Leeds 3-1 Chelsea, December 2025
Leeds 4-1 Crystal Palace, December 2025
Leeds 3-1 Nottingham Forest, February 2026
“Perhaps we should apply to always have a kick-off here on a Friday evening,” the manager joked, having finally proven his top-flight credentials.
It was a landmark moment for Farke, who has won seven of 25 Premier League games this season after overseeing just six victories in 49 with Norwich. And further vindication for the executives who resisted any temptation to sack him either in the summer or when things were looking particularly bleak around November.
Almost inevitably, this run of just two defeats in 12 games started when Chelsea were “beaten up” on a bitter Wednesday night in December. It means the Elland Road electricians are roughly as important to the cause as Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Ethan Ampadu but there is no shame in that.
It is the marginal gain no other club can replicate – and something opposition managers will probably lobby to outlaw soon enough. If Mikel Arteta hasn’t already moved all Arsenal training sessions to the evening and bought some dodgy spotlights off Amazon just in case then he’s lost his touch.
Leeds’ luminosity is their entirely unsecret but no less ludicrously effective weapon in the fight for survival.