Leeds United striker Caleb Ekuban claims that the club can achieve more than just reaching the Championship play-offs this season.
Ekuban, a summer signing from Italian side Chievo Verona, returned from injury to make his first start for Leeds in three months as they impressively swept aside Barnsley at Oakwell on Saturday.
The young Ghanaian forward broke a metatarsal on his Whites debut against Sunderland in August, and made his long-awaited return to the starting team as Leeds secured an important three points.
They now turn their attention to the visit of Aston Villa to Elland Road on Friday, with their opponents on a great run of form that has seen them leapfrog Leeds into the play-off places.
Leeds had been on an alarming slide of seven losses in nine games, but two wins in the last three have revived hopes for the Whites’ season.
Now Ekuban has made the eyebrow-raising claim that they are too good to aim for just the play-offs, despite already falling 11 points behind second-placed Cardiff, and 15 points behind leaders Wolves.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Ekuban said: “I think that the play-offs are quite okay for our standards because we think there are not too many teams that are better than us. We think that the play-offs will be the right goal and I always think that we can even achieve more.
OPINION
Ekuban’s return to the starting line up was a welcome one for Leeds as they secured a solid win over Yorkshire rivals Barnsley on Saturday. However, the visit of Steve Bruce’s Villa poses a more dangerous threat to Leeds as they look to reignite their season. Villa have won four of their last five, including their last three in a row, as they sit in fourth in the table. There is no reason why Leeds can’t pull off an impressive win against the Villans, and if they did so it would be a clear indication that they are out of their alarming slump that threatened to derail their season.