Stoke City 2-1 Leeds United: Potters down Championship leaders to give Nathan Jones first win

Marcelo Bielsa insisted Leeds' defeat at Stoke had nothing to do with their inability to watch the Potters train.

The Football Association and English Football League are investigating Bielsa's admission that he sent staff to observe a training session of not just previous opponents Derby but all of Leeds' Championship rivals this season.

Bielsa has since vowed to "respect the norms in the country where I work" - although Stoke boss Nathan Jones said he would happily have invited the Argentine to watch the Potters train.

But, despite seeing his Championship leaders beaten by goals from Sam Clucas and Joe Allen, the Leeds head coach insisted United's preparation had been unaffected.

"We can't say we ignored the features of the opponent," said Bielsa. "We just didn't take advantage of the possibilities we had. It was a game we could have won.

"Our goal is to have good balls to attack because we usually hurt the opponent. Today we had many opportunities to attack but we didn't hurt them.

"We lacked aggression and we didn't play deep enough to finish off the attacks."

Potters manager Jones, however, claimed the 'spygate' saga - including Bielsa's hour-long presentation to the media that showcased his meticulous planning - had played into Stoke's hands.

Having favoured a midfield diamond at former club Luton, Jones switched to a 3-5-2 formation in a successful attempt to nullify Bielsa's preparations.

"It's been well publicised Marcelo watched 26 Luton games and two Stoke games, so he's well drilled on what our usual formation is," said Jones, who tasted victory for the first time as Potters boss after beginning his reign with two defeats.

"So we thought we may have to give him a surprise because, if he's that well drilled on us, they've had plenty of time to work on it, so it'd be a difficult afternoon.

"We felt with the threats they've got and to give us the best chance to win the match we needed to be tactically right at it and I thought we were."

After a goalless first half, Clucas pounced on a weak Leeds clearance to fire the home side ahead and Allen slid in to seal the points from James McClean's cross before Ezgjan Alioski's stoppage-time consolation for United.

Pontus Jansson's sending-off completed a miserable day for Bielsa's Whites, who remain just a point ahead of second-placed Norwich after a third defeat in their past four league games.

Whether United's players have been affected by the ongoing controversy surrounding their manager only time will tell but they were well below-par against the Potters.

Leeds were unable to get 14-goal top scorer Kemar Roofe into the game and could not fashion a comeback once Clucas put Stoke ahead although Jansson's dismissal - pulling back Benik Afobe to earn a second yellow card after a first for dissent - did not help.