Leeds United would not be so bold as to class this summer as entirely plain sailing. It took until this morning for their new home kit to hit the shops and eyes were rolling at Elland Road a few weeks ago when the club learned that a cargo ship carrying merchandise out of Vietnam had spilt several containers into the sea, threatening another delay.

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Only at Leeds, or so they like to say, but hold-ups in the production of shirts for this season have affected other teams besides them and, all in all, the business of reasserting themselves in the Premier League has come together almost as planned. Sunday’s demolition of Chelsea found Leeds in their element, a club happy in their own skin again. Jesse Marsch is theirs and, by the end of that game, fans in Elland Road were happy about it.

Marsch has a phrase he likes to repeat, one he first used when he became head coach of New York Red Bulls in 2015 to the delight of no one in particular: “Some people will like me, some people will hate me and as every coach learns, that’s football.”

But in saying so on Sunday, he misread the groundswell of approval around him. The question now is not whether Marsch has it in him, but whether Chelsea was a fair and attainable benchmark and whether his team are genuinely as good as they looked in that game. Quality football causes no conflict of emotion. The murals of Marcelo Bielsa are proof of that.

When Leeds offered Marsch the manager’s job in February they presented it as a two-part role, at least until he showed the longevity to take the club beyond those stages. The final 12 games of last season were a matter of survival — no more, or less — and all Leeds asked of him was leadership to hold the dressing room together and prevent relegation. Emerge safely from that, as he did, and this season would launch his tenure in earnest: a fresh start with a new squad and the open expanse of a full 38-game campaign.

Andrea Radrizzani, the club’s chairman, appreciated the way Marsch motivated the players and prevented the squad from splintering as the walls threatened to close in. Now the expectation was that Marsch would truly shine. Victor Orta, as he had with Bielsa, stuck his neck out by backing the 48-year-old for the job so heavily.

It was agreed in advance of survival that if Leeds fell short and went down, Marsch would stay on. Leeds were all-in on his style, his tactics and his suitability, even when their position in the Premier League looked hopeless.

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The journey from abject crisis to the sensation of the win over Chelsea has been multifaceted — a combination of transfer business matching Marsch’s requirements and the manager connecting with his squad tactically and mentally.

Bielsa liked to keep the players at arm’s length and that arrangement worked for him. Marsch prefers to get close to them, being softer on the squad without being soft. His empathetic style is appreciated, not least because of the stress the club were under last season.

Leeds were one of several clubs who spent part of their pre-season in Australia. Manchester United were another. Manchester United’s players and staff were asked to stick to strict curfews in the evening but Marsch’s attitude was to tell his team that the line between fun and disrepute was blindingly obvious and he preferred to trust them to stay on the right side of it.

He admonished one player who missed a public appearance at a supporters event in a way that quickly cleared the air. Leeds could feel his tactics taking hold.

Over the past six months, Thorp Arch has become a world of conversations, one-on-one chats, small group discussions and broader meetings involving the whole dressing room. People who know Marsch well always describe him as a natural communicator and his expansion of Leeds’ leadership group — the collection of senior players who speak for the squad — created a stronger link between him and them.

Rodrigo was targeted for specific attention. The forward, Leeds’ record signing, had experienced two mixed years in England and Marsch sensed that Rodrigo was at a crossroads, in need of some support.

Marsch was ridiculed in public when it emerged he was using quotes from historical figures, among them Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa, as inspirational tools but his interaction with the squad went further than that. He would encourage them to read books or newspaper articles written about world-class athletes, to find out what made them tick or how they achieved marginal gains, particularly when it came to stamina and fitness.

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He tried to engage with those players who were not seen as natural leaders, to make sure they felt valued.

Many one-on-one meetings were handled by his assistant, Cameron Toshack, and the topics of conversation varied. Some focused on tactics and technical improvement. Some had an aspirational tone, asking players to think about where they wanted to be in five years. Some would challenge them to think about how much of a life they had outside football; to place importance on finding pleasure and fulfilment beyond the day job. The idea was to create stronger personal relationships and an environment that was not entirely fixated on business.

Marsch and Leeds agreed in advance what would happen in the transfer market if they avoided relegation, setting themselves up to press the button as soon as survival was assured. Marsch said recently that he considered the club’s purchases to be “our signings” rather than his alone — deals done collectively — but the targets Leeds chased were identified with Marsch’s tactical model in mind, a strategy built around him.

Brenden Aaronson could press in short, sharp bursts, as he did to force the opening goal against Chelsea at the weekend. Tyler Adams would give the midfield industry — essential after the sale of Kalvin Phillips — and Marc Roca’s comfort on the ball would dovetail with Adams, complementing the American’s aggression.

Whatever the stereotypes of players from the USA, the rest of the squad at Leeds felt self-confidence oozing from Aaronson and Adams when they arrived.

Marsch began adapting training to make those signings work. Bielsa’s strenuous sessions had created a squad with impressive stamina — on Sunday, Leeds were able to outrun Chelsea by more than 10km, having already recorded the highest distance covered of any Premier League side on the season’s first weekend — but Marsch switched attention from distance to intensity.

Much of the running in pre-season was tailored to condition the players for his tactics, the hunting in packs that required rapid acceleration on repeat. Drills were designed to provoke high-intensity sprints, to help with pressing and counter-pressing.

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For all that Bielsa’s shadow loomed large, Marsch was not scared of talking about him. He would tell his side to take the character and personality they developed under Bielsa and apply it to his own model. Set pieces were practised daily and some sessions devoted to them entirely. Above all, Marsch would urge his squad to make sure their football matched the passion and fervour of Elland Road. That intensity was what forged the connection between Marsch and the crowd on Sunday, the mutual desire to intimidate Chelsea and steamroller them. Football like that was an easy sell.

The problem for Marsch as last season got out of control was that Elland Road no longer caused fear — at least not to opponents. There was passion and fervour but so much of it was channelled negatively, the consequence of a frightening decline on the pitch. The rout of Chelsea told the league that the crowd had his back and he had theirs. His inauspicious start has been dramatically buried, the vicious tension of spring left behind.

When The Athletic interviewed Marsch in March, not long after his appointment, communication and interaction were two of his watchwords, the weapons he planned to use to his advantage. “Through those channels, I felt I could refresh the air and let everyone move forward,” he said.

And five months on, he has.

(Photos: Getty Images/Design: Eamonn Dalton)