'I don’t think he is Thierry Henry' - Eddie Gray optimistic Leeds United can put Arsenal record back on upward curve

“When I played we would always beat the Arsenal,” Gray recalls.

“I think if you look at the record, from 1965 to 1975, I think you will find they hardly ever beat us.”

He’s right.

Twenty-five fixtures between the two sides in that period produced 19 Whites wins, three draws and just three victories for the Gunners.

Unfortunately, Gray knows the Londoners got their own back around the turn of the millennium, including when he was in charge.

With Gray in the dugout, Arsenal’s 5-0 romp against the soon-to-be-relegated Whites of April 2004 remains the last top-flight encounter between the two sides, a Friday-night fixture in which rapid French sensation Thierry Henry scored four.

Yet 16 years later Gray is optimistic that his former side can add another win to their Gunners record this weekend with the Whites legend only wishing United’s fans were there to savour Sunday’s showdown.

The nation’s continued fight against coronavirus and lockdown 2.0 means Leeds are facing up to another Premier League game at Elland Road behind closed doors and another one against a true top-flight ‘big gun’.

As a player, Whites winger Gray relished tests against “classy club” Arsenal and, more often than not, a Leeds side, managed by first the legendary Don Revie up until 1974 and then Jimmy Armfield, came out on top.

That was exactly the case in the 1968 League Cup final in which Terry Cooper’s strike sealed United’s first major honour under Revie with a 1-0 victory in front of nearly 100,000 fans at Wembley.

Fifty-two years on, Gray is only sad that there will not be a single spectator in the stands for Sunday’s 4.30pm kick-off as the two sides finally renew top-flight rivalry after United’s 16-year absence from the Premier League.

Newly-promoted Leeds go into Sunday’s clash as underdogs but Gray was never one to be frightened of a challenge against the Gunners and, with no Henry to worry about, there is no diminishing his enthusiasm or optimism this weekend.

“It’s a great game for the club to play against Arsenal,” Gray tells The YEP.

“Once again, though, it’s a pity that there will be nobody there and no supporters.

"These are the types of games that the supporters wanted to see, playing against clubs like the Arsenal who we have got a good history with.

“When we won our first trophy ever - our first major trophy, the League Cup - we beat Arsenal in the final.

"Terry Cooper scored the goal and we have got good memories of playing against them.

"There are also a couple of bad memories as a manager playing against Arsenal when they were at the top.

“They were a strong side with tremendous players. But the history between the clubs is good and, when I played, we would always beat the Arsenal.

“We always had a decent record against them but, in later years, after ’75, they had the upper hand. It was completely different.

“They were a top-class side, they had some wonderful players under Arsene Wenger, some terrific players, some of the best players that played in this country.

"Thierry Henry played against us one day and he was just magnificent.

"I think they beat us by five with Henry scoring four and they were just a different league to us.

“But, hopefully, this Sunday it will be different.”

Sizing up Leeds against Arsenal of November 2020, Gray reasoned: “Our players will know it will be a tough game but all the games for the players just now in the Premier League are tough.

"You only have to look at the Crystal Palace game down in London.

"There are no games you go into and you think ‘oh yeah we are going to get the three points here today’.

"You have got to work hard for it.

"Our players know that, regardless of who you are playing, whether it be Crystal Palace in London or Arsenal at Elland Road you know it’s going to be a tough game so everybody has got to be at the top of their game.

“But I don’t think there is any reason - and I know there won’t be any reason - why our players should go into the game with any fear because I think that’s the confidence Marcelo Bielsa instils in the players, that they will go out and play the way that they want to play regardless.

United’s high-press, free-flowing and swashbuckling style had Bielsa’s newly-promoted Whites lining up for the Elland Road clash against Leicester City at the beginning of this month knowing victory would take them third.

Instead, three weeks later, Leeds are approaching Sunday’s clash sitting 15th on the back of two consecutive 4-1 defeats to the Foxes and Crystal Palace, with England international midfielder Kalvin Phillips missing both games with a shoulder injury.

“In the last couple of games we have conceded a few goals and they will have been working on that,” said 72-year-old Gray.

“I think they miss Kalvin Phillips in front of the back four, to play that role in shielding them and then you have the midfield player coming through and attacking.

“It makes a big difference so the quicker you get Kalvin back the better and you just hope that the players that are on international duty come back fit and well.”

There is, though, little time for rest and recuperation, with Sunday’s showdown against the Gunners coming just four days after Wednesday night’s final internationals of the year.

Leeds have had six players on senior international duty during the November international break in Gjanni Alioski, Liam Cooper, Stuart Dallas, Mateusz Klich, Robin Koch and Tyler Roberts.

Phillips would likely have been away with England but for his shoulder problem while Diego Llorente and Rodrigo were prevented from representing Spain with Llorente nursing a groin injury and Rodrigo forced to self-isolate having tested positive for Covid earlier this month.

But 11th-placed Arsenal have had problems of their own with both Mohamed Elneny and Sead Kolasinac having tested positive for coronavirus this week and the Gunners have had a whole host of players away on international duty.

Star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has had perhaps the most eventful week with last season’s Golden Boot runner-up spending a night sleeping on the Banjul airport floor ahead of Gabon’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Gambia.

Aubameyang seems likely to return to start as Arsenal’s chief goal threat and the 31-year-old is a player Gray has huge respect for.

Yet 16 years after his last encounter against the Gunners as a manager, at least Leeds and Gray won’t have to worry about Henry.

Reflecting on the night when the French striker plundered a four-timer, Gray reasoned: “When you look back on football you realise they were a different class to us.

“He was a top, top player and, if you are a football fan, it’s terrible when it happens to you.

"But people watching that game would realise what a top, top player he was. That’s the nature of football.

"I don’t think they have got that calibre of player in the side just now. They have got top players and Aubemeyang is a top player but I don’t think he is Thierry Henry.”

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Thank you Laura Collins