Leeds United's Statement Victory: Anton Stach's Impact at City Ground

Anton Stach didn’t just score a winner. He ripped up the script.

As his free-kick screamed into the top corner and he tore away towards the away end, Leeds United’s travelling support exploded. A single swing of his right foot turned an opening-day point into a statement victory at the City Ground. The contrast with their last visit to Nottingham could hardly have been sharper.

Back in November 2025, Leeds walked into the same ground, took an early lead through Lukas Nmecha – and then watched it all unravel. Nottingham Forest hit back with three, Sean Dyche celebrated his first win as Forest manager, and Leeds trudged away with relegation fears gnawing at them. That night was meant to be the start of a Forest revival. Nine months on, it is Leeds who look like the club on the rise.

Under Daniel Farke, the numbers tell a clear story. Five wins in their last eight league games. Seventeen points since the start of April – only Arsenal, with 18, have taken more in that spell. The trend is no longer survival. It’s progression.

“I expected a difficult game away at Forest,” Farke told BBC Match of the Day after this latest win. “I’m very happy to come away with a cleansheet and compliments to the players.” The tone was calm. The performance behind it was anything but timid.

Leeds finished 14th last season, eight points clear of danger, which now makes their early struggles easy to overlook. Their return to the Premier League began with a stumble: just three wins in their first 13 matches, eight defeats, and a manager already feeling the temperature rise.

Everything changed with a tweak. At the Etihad on 29 November, even in a 3-2 defeat by Manchester City, Farke abandoned his 4-3-3 and shifted to a 3-5-2. The result that day didn’t change, but the season did. From that point, Leeds only lost five more league games.

The players have not forgotten how vulnerable they looked in those early months.

“There were times in the first half of last year where we allowed teams to run over us a bit,” captain Ethan Ampadu told BBC Final Score. “We wanted to get a bit more solid and put our stamp on the game. We want the ball, we want to be attacking and creative.”

That balance – steel without sacrificing ambition – was on display at the City Ground. Leeds had only managed two away wins in the whole of the 2025-26 campaign. So to open this season with a clean sheet and three points on the road felt like more than a good start. It felt like a shift in identity.

“Away games in Premier League are always difficult,” Farke said. “Sometimes the second year is more difficult. Last season, we picked up many points with draws. On the road, we want to be competitive and be more effective.” The message is blunt: draws are no longer enough.

The summer could easily have gone another way. After steering Leeds to safety, Farke publicly warned he might walk away if the club failed to match his ambition, insisting he was “not the right choice” to lead them without serious backing. The board listened. Then they spent.

Around £80m went into reshaping the squad, and three of those signings walked straight into the starting XI on opening day. They did not look out of place.

In goal, James Trafford – a £45m signing from Manchester City and now the most expensive British goalkeeper in history – played with the authority of a man unfazed by that price tag. His handling was clean, his decision-making sharp, his saves decisive. On a day when one Forest chance could have flipped the mood, he shut the door.

Ahead of him, Bosnia-Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic brought exactly what Farke has been demanding: solidity with threat. He marshalled his area, attacked the ball, and at the other end almost broke the deadlock himself, climbing above everyone to power a header that forced Matz Sels into action. Set-pieces suddenly look like a Leeds weapon, not a chore.

Harry Wilson, signed on a free after hitting 10 goals and seven assists for Fulham last season, buzzed around with intent. He thought he had his debut goal too, only for the offside flag to cut short the celebrations. The finish, though, hinted at what he can add.

“From the very first minute they walked into the building, they have shown their quality,” Ampadu said of the new arrivals. “They have shown why they have been brought in to try and help us get to the next level. They’ve shown that hunger and drive to take Leeds to a better place so that has been very good.”

Farke sounded equally satisfied. “I am very happy because they have big boots to fill,” he said. “Trafford is a good player but he hasn’t played that many Premier League games, Tarik too. So they both shined and showed why we agreed to sign them, but the whole group was excellent today. Wilson too was excellent. The vibe and mood is good around the place.”

That “vibe and mood” matters. Farke is now the third-longest-serving manager in the league, behind only Mikel Arteta at Arsenal and Unai Emery at Aston Villa. Stability is rare currency in the Premier League; Leeds have chosen to invest in it and surround it with new talent.

Inside the dressing room, the targets are no longer whispered.

“We know our targets and goals,” Ampadu said. “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.”

With Stach producing decisive moments, the summer signings bedding in quickly and Farke’s system now deeply embedded, Leeds walk away from the City Ground with more than three points. They leave with a question hanging over the rest of the division: if this is their starting level, how high can they climb from here?