As Eddie Nketiah makes Arsenal appearance against Sheffield United, Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United still lament striker's departure

Nketiah was a second half substitute for the Gunners in their 1-1 Emirates draw with Sheffield United in the Premier League on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, eight miles across London and one division below, Bielsa's Leeds were again wasteful in defeat in a 1-0 defeat by Queens Park Rangers.

Leading goalscorer Patrick Bamford missed a couple of golden chances and saw a penalty saved by Rangers' stopper Liam Kelly.

But a look to the substitutes bench named by Bielsa showed a distinct lack of alternative option, ever since Nketiah went back to Arsenal and with no replacement secured by the club's recruitment efforts just yet. So Bamford stayed on for the full 95 minutes and, after, was the subject of questions for his head coach.

"Bamford is a player it is necessary to evaluate by the number of chances he has in a match," said Bielsa.

"Of course someone can say you cannot evaluate a forward by the chances they have, if not, you have to evaluate for the chances they scored.

"I think today Bamford had a lot of chances to score. I give value to that."

But Bielsa did not consider withdrawing the frontman and nor could he, with no strikers on the bench.

And not for the first time in the weeks since Nketiah was recalled by his parent club, having made two Championship starts, Bielsa brought up the 20-year-old, unprompted. It is clear he and Leeds are missing the England Under 21 star. But they also miss clever attacker Tyler Roberts, who is once again injured.

"I didn't consider the option of replacing [Bamford]," said the head coach.

"Of course if Nketiah was on the bench, of course we have to make conclusion with this fact that we have him on the bench. Maybe we could have sent Nketiah to play instead of Pablo or Klich, perhaps that would have been our choice.

"If you ask us if we miss Nketiah, of course because he was our second centre forward, or the first one. He is not with us and Tyler [Roberts] is also not with us. Tyler is a player who can play at centre forward and also he is a playmaker who provides to the finish also."

A positive for Bielsa is the progress made by winger Jordan Stevens, who came off the bench on Saturday and has filled the gap left by the recall by Tottenham of Jack Clarke, who was promptly loaned out to QPR and made his first appearance as a substitute against Leeds at the weekend.

"Stevens plays instead of Clarke," said Bielsa, before returning his attention to what Leeds still desperately want and need.

"I think that [Stevens] is going to give us a good answer in the future.

"Of course I would like to have an option on the bench like Nketiah, because if not we wouldn't have brought Nketiah at the start of the season. But at the moment we try to do all our best to try to resolve this. But you just resolve this bringing one player with the same level as Nketiah or Bamford or a player better than them."