Anton Stach wheeled away towards the travelling supporters as his stunning late free-kick turned a point into three for Leeds United against Nottingham Forest in their Premier League opener. The jubilation after the final whistle at the City Ground on Saturday was in stark contrast to the scenes when Daniel Farke's side made their visit to Nottingham last season. In November 2025, Lukas Nmecha had struck early to put Leeds ahead but the hosts responded with three goals to hand Sean Dyche his first victory as Forest manager and deepen the fear of a quick relegation in the Leeds minds.
That result was also supposed to ignite Forest's revival under the third of their four managers last campaign but, nine months later, it is Leeds who appear to have all the momentum. Farke's side have won five of their past eight league games, collecting 17 points, with only Arsenal (18) amassing more since the start of April. "I expected a difficult game away at Forest," Farke told BBC Match of the Day after the opening win.
"I'm very happy to come away with a cleansheet and compliments to the players." With exciting new signings and growing belief, Leeds will hope this winning start means they can aim to thrive rather than just survive this time around. "We know our targets and goals," Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu told BBC Final Score. "We want to be a Premier League club next season.
We want to achieve that target and then get to a better place. Once that can be achieved, we think of everything else." Leeds finished 14th last season - eight points comfortably clear of the drop zone. So it is easy to forget that their life back in the Premier League did not begin very smoothly.
They only won three of their opening 13 games and lost eight as the pressure piled on Farke and his players. But a tactical switch from a 4-3-3 system to 3-5-2 in a 3-2 defeat by Manchester City at Etihad Stadium on 29 November turned their fortunes around. They only lost five times for the remainder of the season.
And Farke's side are determined not to make the same mistakes in their second season in the top flight. "There were times in the first half of last year where we allowed teams to run over us a bit," Ampadu said. "We wanted to get a bit more solid and put our stamp on the game.
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