Arsenal made life hard for themselves against Leeds United, admits Mikel Arteta

After the Whites defender was shown a straight red card for a lunge on Gabriel Martinelli, Arsenal squandered chances to increase the two-goal lead earned by former Leeds striker Eddie Nketiah's five-minute brace.

Arsenal needed a victory to bolster their bid to compete in next year's Champions' League tournament and after the interval, found themselves up against a revived Leeds side who had to grab something from the game to avoid sinking further into Premier League relegation peril.

Ten-man United made a breakthrough in the 65th minute as Diego Llorente slid the ball in at the back post from a corner and the sight of the Spaniard pulling one back was enough to rejuvenate Jesse Marsch's men, who pushed hard in the closing stages of the game to bag a goal and claim a desperately-needed point.

The North London side held out for a 2-1 win but Gunners boss Arteta said his side's failure to score a third goal caused them unnecessary stress.

"I think we were electric - so determined, so incisive," Arteta said in his post-match conference. "We score two good goals, created chances and didn't allow anything happening around our box.

"And after that the red cards obviously presents a different match, where they change completely their behaviour and how they set up and we have to manage the game in a different way. I think for a lot of phases, we did well, but we needed to score the third goal and we had the chances to do so.

"And then the accident happened the first time that they were through. We concede the goal and then it's game on and some nerves have to be handled. In that phase, I think we show a lot of maturity not to rush things and just not to concede breaks and things like that - we didn't do any of that.

"But then we've we didn't find the net in key moments to score the third goal and to have a different last 20 minutes probably."

Llorente's goal inspired an admirable fightback from the relegation-threatened Whites, with United shot-stopper Illan Meslier joining the attack in the closing stages of the game as Leeds threw everything at snatching a point.

Arteta praised his side's ability to close out a result despite letting control of the game slip late on.

"We are finding ways to win football matches," Arteta said.

"The way we played today, especially the first 35 minutes, it was brilliant.

"You always have an opponent and the context changes throughout the game. You can't expect to be all the time for 95 minutes on top of the game.

"And we are dealing with that and getting better at it because at the end we are winning football matches."