Fast and slow: Leeds 2-1 Sunderland

How EFL football happened fast and slow, as the Championship automatic promotion battle turned under the Monday night lights.

And after all that time, Leeds appeared fallible. And after all that time, Sunderland took the biggest step. And after all that time, Sheffield United sat pretty, Burnley sat up, and Régis Le Bris looked every inch the great appointment of the season. And then, after all that, Leeds found a way to win—well after time.

Football’s consequences run fast and slow. Some moments explode into life, others take weeks to settle. The clock moves forward, and everything shifts. The bit that hooks itself into your skin is the chaos of it all. Those in-game moments, out of control, the gasp, the thrill, the urgency. The stuff that runs fast and flips assumptions.

There was Meslier, making an early double save, a crucial response from a goalkeeper who had conceded so meekly against Sunderland in the reverse fixture. There was Isidor, a name Tolkien might have written, once the fallen hero after missing two penalties in a single game, now shaking off Ethan Ampadu, rolling Ampadu, and firing home the opener. A striker proving himself, arguably, the best in the division. Hero again.