Javi Gracia tells Leeds United to feel the pain of 5-1 Crystal Palace hammering, then forget it

One-nil up and dominant as the first half ticked into stoppage time, the Whites somehow conspired to lose 5-1 to their Premier League relegation rivals at a stunned Elland Road.

With eight games remaining, it left Leeds two points above the relegation zone and gives Everton and Nottingham Forest the chance to drop them in it before they play again, at home to Liverpool.

That match is not until Monday, April 17, having been moved for television. Normally footballers like to jump straight back on the horse after a bad defeat, but Gracia hopes to use the time to recharge batteries after three vital matches in eight days.

"All of us have to be really disappointed, it's something we have to feel," said the Spaniard, who had seen the Whites win all three of their previous games against relegation rivals since he took over in late February.

"We'll try to learn something from it, to train, to work and prepare for the next game. After that, the same way we forgot our win against Forest, we'll do (that again).

"We had a spell where we had many games (and) at this moment the players need to rest a little bit and try to recover because they worked really hard.

"We have time to recover, to rest and to train hard.

"They are a very offensive team, they come forward with a lot of players, that's why they create the goal chances they did in the first 20 minutes and looked so dangerous."

That extra time to rest bodies could be important, with reports Patrick Bamford played with an injury on Sunday, although it did not stop him scoring his 50th goal for the club.

Possible alternative Rodrigo has only been fit enough to be a substitute in the four matches since he returned from injury. He came on in the 60th minute against Forest, his longest shift of that spell.

Record signing Georginio Rutter is yet to score for the club he joined in January, and his only Premier League start came against Chelsea.

Leeds returned from the international break with a 4-1 defeat at Arsenal, but responded to beat Nottingham Forest far more convincingly than the 2-1 scoreline suggested.

All the teams in danger of dropping into the Championship play again before Leeds do. It would take any unlikely set of results to put them in the bottom three by Monday, although there have been a few of them lately.

Everton, outside of the relegation zone on goal difference, might fancy their chances on Saturday at home to a Fulham side whose form has tailed off but a Forest side who are also struggling would have to win at home to Manchester United on Sunday to leapfrog Leeds.

Defeats are inevitable in a topsy-turvy relegation battle so tight it can see teams jump up or down the table by four or five places on the strength of one result.

Palace are 12th having now won both their matches since Roy Hodgson took caretaker charge, yet are still only six points clear of relegation themselves.

But it was the nature of the loss that was worrying, Leeds subsiding as soon as they conceded to Marc Guehi at the end of the first half. It was the first of three Palace goals in 10 minutes of football either side of half-time, and by full-time it was the Whites' biggest defeat of the season.

Robin Koch summed up the mood on Twitter when he described it as “Just not enough and disappointing for our fans at Elland Road”.

Meanwhile, there are reports that 49ers Enterprises could exercise their option to buy the club ahead of schedule this summer. The commercial arm of San Francisco’s NFL franchise has a 44 per cent stake with the right to launch a takeover before January.