Leeds’ Gudmundsson Aims for Revenge Against Sunderland
Gabriel Gudmundsson doesn’t sound like a man easing his way back. He sounds like a defender itching for the next challenge.
Leeds sit seventh after seven Premier League games, beaten only once, and the 27-year-old left-back believes the mood inside Daniel Farke’s dressing room matches the table: sharp, bullish, and building.
“I’m feeling good,” he told BBC Radio Leeds, a simple line that carries a bit more weight when you remember how his season started. A hamstring problem ruled him out of the opening two matches, a frustrating pause just as Leeds were trying to prove last year’s survival was a springboard, not a ceiling.
Those weeks are gone. Gudmundsson used the international break to top up minutes and rhythm, and he now talks like a player who feels his legs again.
He’s not alone.
Leeds have lost just once in the league so far, and their performances have hardened expectations around Elland Road. The club finished 14th last season, a commendable effort for a promoted side, but the tone has shifted. Inside and outside the club.
“Expectations from last season going into this season were higher,” Gudmundsson said. People now look at Leeds and assume they should take something from almost every game. That’s a compliment. It’s also a burden. And the squad seem happy to carry it.
They feel “confident” and “physically strong”, he insists, and the numbers back up the sense of a side that has grown into the division rather than survived it. Leeds have taken points off top teams already, and the frustration after recent draws against stronger opponents has revealed something more important than early-season form: ambition.
Two tough games, two results that might have been celebrated a year ago, now leave a hint of disappointment. That’s the new standard Gudmundsson is talking about. Leeds don’t just want to hang around mid-table. They want to push.
The summer helped. “Good lads” arrived, as he put it, and the blend of last season’s core with fresher faces has given Farke more depth and more edge. The message from the squad is clear: this is a step-by-step climb, not a one-off surge.
“We are in a good path,” Gudmundsson said. The grammar might be imperfect, the sentiment is not. Leeds look like a team that believes this is only the start.
Next up, though, comes a reminder of how brutal this league can be and how quickly narratives can flip.
Leeds travel to bottom club Sunderland on Sunday. On paper, it looks like an opportunity. In reality, it’s a scar that still stings.
Last season, the Black Cats finished seventh, above Leeds, and grabbed a European spot. Across the two league meetings, they outmanoeuvred their fellow promoted side: a 1-1 draw at the Stadium of Light and a 1-0 win at Elland Road. Sunderland didn’t just take four points; they took a little piece of Leeds’ pride.
Gudmundsson hasn’t forgotten.
“Sunderland away is always difficult and we know that we have to be strong,” he said. The respect is there, but so is the edge. “We definitely want to have revenge from last time we were there.”
He’s blunt about how Leeds viewed that away draw: they felt they were the better side and should have won it. That sense of injustice, real or perceived, will travel with them up the motorway this weekend.
This is where Leeds’ new identity gets tested. A side that now expects to compete with the best has to prove it can also do the ugly, necessary work against the worst-placed team in the division. No one in white will say it out loud, but anything less than a result will feel like a step backwards.
“We really want to go there and get something out of it this weekend,” Gudmundsson said. Not a hopeful line. A demand. Because what comes next only adds to the strain.
After Sunderland, Leeds head to Bournemouth, another awkward away day and another chance to show whether this early-season form has real substance. Two long trips, two hostile grounds, and a squad talking openly about revenge, ambition and higher standards.
Leeds wanted to move on from last season’s narrative of survival. They’ve done that. Now they walk into a different kind of pressure: a team expected to win, expected to impose itself, expected to turn frustration against “top teams” into points against struggling ones.
Sunday at Sunderland will say a lot about whether this confident, physically strong Leeds side truly belongs in that conversation.
