Illan Meslier made his first league start for Leeds United at the weekend in their 4-0 thrashing of Hull City following the eight-match ban handed to Kiko Casilla on Friday night.

The French-youth international joined Leeds in the summer on a season-long loan from French Ligue 2 side FC Lorient to provide cover for Spanish first-choice stopper Kiko Casilla, and has been patient in waiting for his chance in the starting 11 in that time.

The Whites have been reliant on Casilla’s presence on and off the ball at the back for Leeds and still boasts the most clean sheets in the Championship despite his woeful run of form around the festive period and after the turn of the New Year.

An FA investigation was finally concluded on the eve of Leeds’ trip to Hull City at the weekend and found Casilla guilty of racially aggravated abuse towards Jonathan Leko, from back in September.

This put 20-year-old Meslier in line to make his first league appearance for Leeds after making his debut in the FA Cup away to Arsenal and impressing a lot with his performance. Leeds made the trip to the KCOM Stadium looking for their fourth straight win and clean sheet against a struggling Tigers side slipping closer and closer to the relegation zone.

It was a very comfortable win for Leeds in the end as they ran out rampant 4-0 winners and it was probably the perfect league debut for Meslier to be involved in, despite looking somewhat shaky in the opening moments of the game.

The Athletic revealed that Leeds are keen on signing Meslier to a permanent deal at the end of the season, and this came before he even played a single minute of Championship football, with the deal looking like costing £5million.

A clean sheet and three points in the league showed a strong start for Meslier and the stats make for good reading too…

With 94 minutes on the board, Meslier looked very confident throughout the game and kept his first clean sheet in a Leeds United shirt when the away side kept their lead in the top two at five points over Fulham.

It was a relatively quiet afternoon for the towering Frenchman but he was still forced into two saves by the hosts, one of which forced him into a reflex save from Kevin Stewart’s first-half effort. His other save came in the second-half following a corner where Sean McLoughlin could only direct his header straight into his hands.

Out of eight shots that the Tigers managed to muster, only two of them were on target but they were routinely saved by Meslier. His handling ability has been a clear strength in the two games that he has played for Leeds so far, against the Gunners and now Hull.

With the game tilted massively in the visitors' favour, there wasn’t too much chance for the stopper to showcase his talents but he was comfortable from crosses with three well-taken exits.

Can you name the last 12 Leeds United no.1s?

There was never a moment where Meslier looked shaky from crosses or catching the ball and it was clear that the defence in front of him wasn’t concerned with any potential howlers creeping into his game and Meslier had the full backing of the squad.

In terms of his passing accuracy, there were moments highlighted in his play that make for viewing much more negative than what was actually the case in his work in possession.

His first touch of the ball didn’t go swimmingly as he launched a goal kick upfield to Stuart Dallas only for it to narrowly float over his head for a Hull throw-in. There were only four passes out of his 26 passes that didn’t reach a Leeds shirt, which meant that his short passing accuracy stood at 88% (22 out of 25) and his only attempted long pass went slightly astray.

While there wasn’t much in the way of actual shot-stopping for Meslier to get involved in, he looked assured and confident in every aspect of his play.

Playing nothing like a 20-year-old goalkeeper playing in his first league game since signing from a different country in an extremely high-pressure season for a club with a lot of expectation on their shoulders. It certainly bodes well for at least the next seven games and beyond for Meslier and Leeds.