Leeds United striker Tyler Roberts was right about Chelsea and Marcelo Bielsa got it right - Graham Smyth's Verdict

Playing well enough and creating chances but not getting results, Leeds United were not in the best form as Chelsea loomed large, expensive and ominously in-form on the horizon.

Roberts declared this fixture, arguably the most difficult Leeds could face at this stage of the season, just what they needed.

It raised a few eyebrows, of course, but taking the road less travelled by is very much the done thing at Elland Road these days.

This is a club and a team now well accustomed to doing what they're not supposed to do - lasting the course last season instead of 'falling apart' or 'burning out' and swimming instead of sinking in the Premier League playing the same insanely attacking football.

Shutting out a Chelsea squad laden with an embarrassment of attacking riches was justifiably regarded as an almost impossible task for one of the division's leakiest defences.

Even the thought of creating much in the way of danger, against a Chelsea who had conceded just twice in Thomas Tuchel's 11 games in charge, appeared somewhat far-fetched.

Factor in the illness that took captain Liam Cooper out of Bielsa's backline and the Whites were up against it.

With all of that said, Roberts was, remarkably, right. Leeds shut Chelsea out, relishing the challenge and rising to it, and on another day might even have nicked this one with the chances they created. A 0-0 draw felt very fair and entirely deserved, for the hosts. It was a positive result at a time when negativity was threatening to seep into the season.

Bielsa was predicted by many to replace Roberts in the starting line-up with the fit-again Rodrigo but the £27m man was once again on the bench.

A first half injury to Patrick Bamford did hand Rodrigo some match minutes, however the Spaniard is not yet fully up to speed after returning from the groin injury he sustained on January 31, and Bielsa felt the need to substitute the substitute before the end.

Roberts outshone the vastly more experienced man and proved Bielsa was right to stick with him.

In the number 10 role he played a full part in an aggressive press that forced occasional mistakes from a side with enviable quality on the ball and wonderful technical ability all over the pitch. As a number nine in the second half, Roberts led the line well and helped put and keep Leeds on the front foot and in the final third, where Chelsea could do least harm.

There was a lot to like in this performance, from the audacious shot he curled up and over giant Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy, who just about got his fingernail to it and ensured the ball hit the crossbar and not the net, to the neatest of second half turns that took Leeds out of a pocket of pressure and into wide open space in the Blues' half.

An offside flag, one of those infuriating delayed ones that assistant referees are directed to give, ruled out his early goal after Bamford had crept just beyond the last shoulder to run in behind and set Roberts up for a tap-in.