Leeds United retained their six-point gap between themselves and the relegation zone in the Premier League with an excellent 2-2 draw against Chelsea on Tuesday night.
Daniel Farke's side found themselves 2-0 down at Stamford Bridge with an hour on the clock, but they did not give up and they managed to turn the game around.
Lukas Nmecha's penalty gave the away side hope before an unbelievable scramble in the box resulted in Noah Okafor tapping the ball into the back of the net.
okafor-leeds-chelsea
The Switzerland international scored for the second time in as many matches, after his strike against Nottingham Forest at Elland Road, and he is now up to four Premier League goals for the season.
Despite coming off the bench to score a crucial goal which earned Leeds a point on the night, Okafor was not the best player on the pitch for Farke.
How Noah Okafor performed off the bench for Leeds
The Swiss forward deserves plenty of credit for being in the right place at the right time to tap into an empty net after the crazy few seconds of pinball around the Chelsea penalty area.
He was there to score and it was his strike that earned the team a point, but it was not a moment of individual quality or magic that created a goal out of nothing.
Okafor lost four of his five ground duels and three of his four aerial duels, struggling with the physicality of the game off the bench, and it was almost costly in one incident.
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The former AC Milan winger tried to dribble into the middle of the pitch and was easily outmuscled by Chelsea striker Liam Delap, who drove forward and played the ball wide to Cole Palmer, but the winger failed to make the most of the counter-attack.
Fortunately, the Blues did not go on to win the game and profit off of any of Okafor's loose bits of play, and that was partly down to the performance of one of his teammates.
Leeds' real hero vs Chelsea
The Whites have two players in the top 50 performers in the current Premier League Power Rankings, but there is a star who is on his way to making it high up on the list.
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James Justin started at right-back in a back five against Chelsea, after playing as a right-sided centre-back in a five against Forest in the previous match, and he was absolutely outstanding.
The standout moment from the ex-Leicester star was when he made an unbelievable last-ditch tackle just as it looked like Estevao was going to put Chelsea 3-2 up, as he slid in to make a goal-saving clearance.
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Justin's tackle on Estevao was just as important as Okafor's goal, because they may have lost the game without that intervention, and his all-round play was far better than the Swiss attacker's.
The England international's defensive play throughout the 90 minutes was almost perfect, as he won six of his nine duels on the ground and five of his six aerial duels with the Blues attackers.
Vs Chelsea James Justin
Defensive contributions 9
Tackles won 3/4
Clearances 4
Blocks 1
Ground duels won 6/9
Aerial duels won 5/6
Dribbled past 0x
Justin was not dribbled past a single time in the game, despite being against the likes of Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto, and Joao Pedro, which is a credit to his outstanding defending.
There was a moment in the second half when it looked like Palmer found space on the left to get a cross in, but the Leeds full-back was immovable. His lateral speed to keep up with the winger's twisting and turning was great to watch, as he locked the Chelsea superstar down.
It was not just his performance on Tuesday night, though, as Justin has been in immense form for several weeks now, which is why he looks like one of the best players in the Premier League.
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Despite playing as a wing-back or as a centre-back, the defender has scored two goals and provided one assist in his last six appearances in all competitions, which shows that he has added attacking quality to go along with his brilliant defending.
Justin is a lockdown defender who can nullify an opposition's best player, when they are on his side of the pitch, but he also has the quality in possession to provide telling moments at the other end of the field.
That is why he has to be considered one of the best players in the league at the moment, because he is impacting matches defensively and offensively. It is time for the Power Rankings to be updated.
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