Leeds United's man of the moment has called for boss Daniel Farke to get his just credit for making the Whites so competitive in the Premier League.

The task for Farke and the club's hierarchy after promotion was to avoid the fate of the three teams who went up from the Championship a year prior. Leicester City, Southampton and Ipswich Town earned a combined points tally of 59 in a miserable season. The Saints, who beat Leeds at Wembley in the 2024 play-off final, barely troubled the top flight and finished on 12 points. Ipswich earned 22 and Leicester 25. The gap to Spurs, in 17th, was 13 points. The goal difference column said it all - ranging from Ipswich with -46 to Southampton with -60. All three conceded at least 80 goals. None of them surpassed the 37-goal mark for the season. In short, they were not competitive.

The Premier League table as it stands has already justified Leeds' decision to stick with Farke as manager and the transfer strategy that he and the club's decision makers agreed upon. They sought players who could give them a chance to stay in games, if not with individual flair then with physicality - athleticism, running power, stamina, aerial ability and steel. Farke was keen to point out early doors that these were footballers they signed, not cloggers, and one of the best examples has been Anton Stach. The 6ft 4ins midfielder eats up the ground with giant strides and excels in duels but with the ball at his feet he is a chance creation machine and a goalscorer.

On Friday night Stach was rightly celebrated by a standing ovation from Elland Road as he came off after 70 minutes having produced an all-action display. The win over Burnley put Leeds on the verge of safety with 43 points and a goal difference of minus five. It capped the kind of season last season's newly-promoted trio would have died for. But it was not without its difficulties. There was a spell in November when Farke and his players came under huge scrutiny because they had won just one game in seven. In that run were a small number of poor performances and it was that form they took into a trio of fixtures against Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool. At the Etihad they were 2-0 down at the break until Farke changed to a back three and a second half performance not only rattled Pep Guardiola's men, it was the start of a better run. They followed the 3-2 loss at City with a win over Chelsea and a draw with Liverpool. They went seven unbeaten. Farke does not like to hear it referred to as a major turning point because he recalls competitive performances and good results prior to the Etihad, but at the very least it marked their emergence from the season's lowest point.

For Stach, the biggest thing was that the squad and the staff remained on the same page regardless of how difficult it got. How they dug themselves out of it is what marks them as a good team, in his eyes.

"It was very big from him [Farke] and us as a group in general - the team, the management, coaches, staff - everyone to stick together in a difficult situation and we were not falling apart and not struggling," he said. "I think this was important as you can see when there's a good team, it's always when you lose some games and it’s not working out really well. It's easy [being a] good team when you win. When you lose a lot then you can see if you are a good team. This is what we showed with everybody in the club."

On Friday after the win over Burnley sections of Elland Road sang Farke's name in recognition of the job he has done this season. The credit is richly deserved, according to Stach.

"I don’t know how much credit he gets but he should get some credit," said the midfielder. "We played a really good season. Of course there are difficult periods, but I think it’s normal for a newly promoted side. I think we were in nearly every game, where a win was possible. When you don’t think about like the Arsenal games, but the rest, we could take some points and I think he should 100 per cent get credit."

The job is not yet complete, though Leeds would be made safe without kicking another ball if Arsenal beat West Ham on Sunday. But the task of making Leeds at the very least a competitive Premier League side, one capable of staying in games and able to fight for enough points, has long been ratified.