Leeds United player ratings from Arsenal defeat as Jesse Marsch forgives player

Leeds United player ratings from Arsenal defeat

Leeds United fell to a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday - but how did we rate the performances?

The Whites suffered a nightmare start in North London as former United loanee Eddie Nketiah struck a five-minute brace to give the hosts a comfortable lead inside ten minutes.

Jesse Marsch's side's woes deepened midway through the first half when Luke Ayling was shown a straight red for a lunging tackle on Gabriel Martinelli.

Diego Llorente gave the visitors a glimmer of hope by pulling one back in the 65th minute but, despite throwing everything at scoring an equaliser, the game ended in defeat for Leeds.

Here's how chief YEP writer Graham Smyth rated the 90 minutes for the Leeds squad...

Jesse Marsch forgives player

Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch said that the Illan Meslier error which lead to Arsenal taking the lead in Sunday's Premier League defeat was understandable.

When receiving a back pass from Luke Ayling, the 22-year-old failed to notice the advancing Eddie Nketiah who swept the ball from under him to open the scoring at the Emirates.

On a crucial afternoon in the fight for survival, Meslier's hesitation put Leeds on the backfoot inside five minutes.

But Marsch doesn't bear any grudges on the Premier League's youngest shot-stopper.

"A young keeper can make mistakes at times, it's how he responds and after that I thought he was quite good," Marsch said.

"We'll need him in the last three matches. We're down to not a lot of players. We need every guy to help us get through this situation.

"I know there's no rewards for coming away without points, especially now we're in the relegation zone but we have to stay positive, strong and we have to forge on.

"That's the only way we can operate right now."

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Mikel Arteta regrets late nerves

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said his side should have put the game to bed after Leeds United went down to ten men on Sunday.

After Luke Ayling was shown a straight red by referee Chris Kavanagh, the Gunners enjoyed a period of dominance that they could not capitalise on.

Diego Llorente's second-half goal halved the hosts' advantage and the home side and crowd became edgy as Leeds fought to equalise.

It was stress that could be avoided, Arteta said, if they had put the game to bed at the proper moment.

"We concede the goal and then it's game on and some nerves have to be handled," Arteta said.

"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."

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