Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch believes that a win against Chelsea on Wednesday, the last of three consecutive games against top four sides, would give the club a tremendous boost as they try to battle their way out of the relegation crisis.
Marsch has led the Peacocks to three victories in nine games, but they haven’t won in their last three games, despite facing Manchester City and Arsenal in their past two.
The game against Arsenal saw Marsch’s men finishing the game with 10 men after Luke Ayling was sent off for a horrific tackle on Gabriel Martinelli in a frustrating 2-1 defeat against the Gunners. The defeat at the Emirates means Leeds now sees themselves in 17th place level on points with Burnley who are ahead on goal difference. Leeds would require at least 4 points from their remaining fixtures to have any chance of staying up.
Marsch faced the media ahead of the game against the Champions of Europe Chelsea who travel to Elland Road having squandered a 2 goal lead in the last 10 minutes against Wolves to only earn a solitary point and put their chances of European football in further jeopardy having been winless in their last 3 Premier League games.
“I do believe [we can stay up],” he said. “And I knew going into these three matches against City, against Arsenal, against Chelsea, that picking up points was going to be incredibly difficult. I knew that we still could manage to find some points.
“Right now if we beat Chelsea, I would walk away from the three matches and if you asked me before – three points from the three matches – I would say that’s okay, that’ll help us.
“We failed the first two tests and we have another massive test Wednesday night against a team that has a little bit more rest than us. And we’ve just got to turn around, find a way to stay strong, put a group on the pitch that’s going to do whatever it takes like they did in the second half [at Arsenal] and find a way to get our points – that’s the only focus right now.”
“It’s just trying to focus on our performances. We knew that coming with these three opponents City, Arsenal and Chelsea that things were going to be difficult. But if we can get one win out of the three, that will feel good and then we’ll move forward and their last two games and do whatever it takes. So that’s exactly where we are.
“If our backs are against the wall, we’ve got to get even better and we’ve got to fight even more, and we’ve got to do whatever it takes to claw ourselves out of this situation. We’ll focus on that and move forward – in our minds totally right now we’re on Wednesday night and against Chelsea at home.”
Certainly, the American is feeling confident to overcome the most difficult situation he has been in throughout his managerial career but only time will tell Leeds’ fate.
