The one thing worth watching at Stamford Bridge on Saturday was the sunset, a glorious golden-red glow which until recently would have been blocked out by the roof of the ugly, functional West Stand. What took place between Chelsea and Leeds United on the pitch was plain rather than ugly and only functioned to the extent that Leeds achieved what they had set out to achieve, albeit by the more difficult route.

Two in-form teams - Chelsea with seven wins in eight games, Leeds defeated once in 10 Premier League fixtures - produced a match made memorable almost solely by the number of times the referee, Graham Poll, reached for his cards in the first half. Poll cautioned three Chelsea players and five from Leeds, two of whom were subsequently sent off for second bookable offences.

Reduced to 10 men by the dismissal of Alf-Inge Haaland after 24 minutes and then to nine by the red card shown to Gary Kelly in first-half stoppage time, Leeds went on to produce an exhibition of tight, disciplined defending which few teams, if any, will better this season.

The centre-backs, Lucas Radebe and David Wetherall, were superb and when Michael Duberry did manage to get between them to meet Graeme Le Saux's centre in the 87th minute, Nigel Martyn made a fine arching save to tip his header over the top.

Given that Billy Bremner had died less than a week earlier, recalling the Leeds United of Don Revie, perhaps it was only natural that the first half of this game should be widely regarded as the sour Seventies revisited. In fact, the comparison is misplaced, the haircuts were all wrong to start with.

Hooliganism on the terraces was the bane of the Seventies, hooliganism on the pitch came along a little earlier. It was in November 1964 that a referee, Ken Stokes, took the players of Everton and Leeds off the pitch at Goodison Park for a cooling-off period.

The drift towards anarchy continued until referees suddenly clamped down on fouls in general and tackles from behind in particular at the start of the 1971-72 season. They wanted to protect the skilful player, although one of the first victims of this "refs' revolution" was George Best.

For decades, two features distinguished British football from the game being played by the rest of the world : the charging of goalkeepers and the tackle from behind. Goalkeepers have long since been properly protected but the latter has been allowed to flourish in the English leagues until much more recently. One of the few positive aspects of Saturday's match was Poll's determination not to let defenders come through the man with little intention of getting the ball.

While Leeds were entitled to break up the rhythm of Chelsea's passing with quick interceptions and hard tackles, the moment in the fifth minute when Radebe scythed down Gianfranco Zola from behind set the mood for much of what followed. The challenge was crude and unnecessary and in any case Radebe had the pace and skill to subdue Zola without having to foul him.

If Poll erred at all it was on the side of leniency. The late tackle on Le Saux, for which Bruno Ribeiro was booked, was marginally less serious than Ribeiro's earlier assault on Dennis Wise. Michael Duberry's studs-up lunge at Haaland was ignored amid an ensuing schemozzle which saw Wise cautioned and the Norwegian, already shown the yellow card for kicking out at Di Matteo, sent off.

Kelly's dismissal was even sillier. He had been booked after 80 seconds for ignoring the instructions of both linesman and referee to retreat the proper distance at a corner, and let off with a warning for bringing down Tore Andre Flo. The foul from behind which brought a red card also brought him recriminations from his own side.

With an Irishman and a Norwegian sent off and a South African, a Portuguese and an Italian among those cautioned, perhaps it would be an exaggeration to say that English football in the Nineties has finally got the message of the early Seventies. Yet the reactions of the players, the managers and indeed the crowd suggested this was so.

Thirty years ago, when the Shed ruled, Stamford Bridge would have been in an uproar. Now the fans merely grumbled at Chelsea's unimaginative, vain efforts to break down Leeds's eight-man defence. Ruud Gullit felt Leeds deserved their point, and George Graham said he would not stand for indiscipline from his players. Remembering what he had stood for on occasions at Arsenal maybe this was yet another case of it being never too late to learn.

In fact what was left of Graham's Leeds team after half-time learned so quickly that had they shown similar discipline from the outset they might still have stopped Chelsea playing and could even have won the game. Chelsea were always going to miss the strength in possession of the suspended Mark Hughes and their predictable high balls simply played to the strength of Leeds's central defenders.

An oblique reference from Graham to opponents diving when tackled brought amused surprise from Gullit. `The referee had to do something," the Dutchman observed, "otherwise the game would have got out of hand."

But apart from wryly noting that his team had come off with one or two knocks - "especially on the calves, I don't know why!" - Gullit accepted this throwback to the days of the Hula-Hoop as an irritating diversion. Those who remember the game's dark ages will fervently hope it stays that way.