“Probably wanted to kill me,” Leeds United manager Farke says of the team’s dressing room performance.

After a challenging first half test and a tumultuous opening minute of play, Farke’s team took control of the game by halftime and went on to deny their opponents the victory shortly after the hour. After a minute had passed and a linesman’s offside flag disqualified Daniel James’ opening goal of 40 seconds, Jamie Paterson scored Swansea’s first goal by capitalizing on Pascal Struijk’s misplaced header. However, Leeds responded with a sliderule finish from Joel Piroe on minute four, and Georginio Rutter made it two with a sophisticated second in stoppage time just before halftime. Leeds had plenty of opportunities to increase their lead before James scored the third on minute 61.

After missing out against Rotherham United, Sam Byram and Pascal Struijk were back in the starting lineup, but Luke Ayling’s absence was the biggest surprise on the team sheet. Djed Spence replaced him in the matchday lineup following a two-month absence due to a knee injury. Farke gave credit to Spence’s work in training for earning a spot on the bench as a Spurs loanee.

“Djed’s growth from training session to training session was evident from the first 11 or 12 days of training, so it wasn’t a gift,” Farke said. “He can’t be there at 100% after such a long injury, but we felt he already deserved to be in the squad.” I was pretty impressed with him during training. We made the decision to offer him a choice. If he puts in that much effort every day to improve his rhythm, particularly given his current level of fitness, he stands a good chance of participating in game time in the coming weeks.