Leeds United's response at Arsenal hints at more bloody noses before final bell - Graham Smyth's Verdict

THE beauty of this season for Leeds United, other than their league position, has been the chance to operate with a relative lack of expectation.
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For years, players at Elland Road struggled with the weight of the demand for what supporters quite reasonably believe is their rightful top-flight status.

Ten of the 11 who started against Arsenal felt that weight in the Championship, walking out for each and every game knowing they were expected to win it.

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Those expectations were weighty, but they were fair, thanks largely to what Bielsa had done with this group of players.

CLINICAL: Leeds United duo Liam Cooper, left, and Luke Ayling, right, are unable to prevent Arsenal hotshot Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from firing the Gunners in front. Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images.CLINICAL: Leeds United duo Liam Cooper, left, and Luke Ayling, right, are unable to prevent Arsenal hotshot Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from firing the Gunners in front. Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images.
CLINICAL: Leeds United duo Liam Cooper, left, and Luke Ayling, right, are unable to prevent Arsenal hotshot Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from firing the Gunners in front. Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images.

Their fitness levels, man-to-man marking, free-flowing football and relentless chance creation made them well capable of picking up three points regardless of the identity of their opponent.

When they didn’t win last season, a full-scale fanbase meltdown never felt far away.

This season has been different, chiefly because all Leeds need to do is stay up.

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So all the positive results, the draw against Manchester City, the wins at Everton, Leicester City and Aston Villa for example, and the comfortable mid-table position they have afforded themselves, have all come as a very welcome bonus.

Yet with talk in some quarters - outside Elland Road and Thorp Arch it should be stated - starting to turn to a Europa League place, there was a little expectation starting to build ahead of the visit to Arsenal.

This was a side Leeds had dominated, of course, at Elland Road and, even if that game ended 0-0 and even if the Gunners did play for a long time with 10 men, many felt they could get at Mikel Arteta’s men once more.

And why not? The same third-man runs that caused merry hell in the second tier have allowed Leeds to create chances against some of the best defenders in English football.

The loss of Kalvin Phillips tempered all of that, however.

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Of all the senior players Bielsa cannot currently count on, including two Spanish internationals and a German national team defender, Phillips seems the most costly absence.

If nothing else, it requires the most in terms of a reshuffle.

For this game, Bielsa brought Jamie Shackleton in at right-back, pushed Luke Ayling inside to partner Liam Cooper at the heart of the defence and Pascal Struijk moved forward to fill Phillips’ role.

The first half at The Emirates further dampened any rising expectations and backed up Bielsa’s recent gentle attempt to quiet talk of European qualification.

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“Right now we don’t have the consistency to imagine any higher up the table,” he had said.

As the Gunners ran riot before the break, scoring three times and forcing Leeds into a plethora of errors, those words rang particularly true.

Struijk was unable to free himself in order to give Illan Meslier an option for restarts, Shackleton and Gjanni Alioski were closely guarded so Leeds’ emergence from their own box was ponderous and Arsenal pinned them in.

The hosts’ two early shooting chances, both of which came from forced turnovers, neither of which were taken, were warning shots not heeded.

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The opening goal came from Meslier trying to force a way forward with little viable options, Arsenal picking off his pass, working the ball left to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who was too much for Ayling to handle, the striker creating space for a shot that crept inside the near post.

Bielsa says it requires a huge physical effort for Leeds to make their Premier League opponents look worse and that’s how it was playing out, the Gunners able to progress the ball forward quickly with far greater ease than the visitors, who toiled to make any kind of headway.

Even Raphinha, who has sparkled of late, was dulled by the Arsenal press. His only first-half joy came from a clever Shackleton ball over the top, the winger darting inside and finding Harrison whose shot was tame.

Referee Stuart Attwell had already reversed a decision to award Arsenal a penalty, deciding Bukayo Saka was already on his way to ground before Liam Cooper made contact with him, when Leeds’ problems playing out presented a spot-kick that stood up to the VAR test.

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Meslier dallied on the ball, came under pressure from Saka and his desperate, rushed attempt to clear took the attacker to the ground.

Mistakes are to be expected from a 20-year-old but direct involvement in both Arsenal goals made it a first half to forget even before Saka toyed with his defence, Aubameyang clipped a clever ball into the area and Hector Bellerin beat Meslier low at his near post.

Expectations, for the rest of this game, were at an all-time low as the teams went in at the break and the introduction of Helder Costa and Tyler Roberts, both of whom have struggled for form and impact this season, did little to alter that, particularly when their immediate impact only added to the disaster.

Roberts left the ball for Costa outside the Leeds area with the winger facing his own goal under pressure, so when Emile Smith-Rowe easily outmuscled him, Arsenal were in and a simple ball to the back post gave Aubameyang a close-range header for his hat-trick.

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Expecting Leeds to beat teams like Arsenal, when they’re without Phillips, Rodrigo, Robin Koch and Diego Llorente, is a little unfair, but the least that could be demanded was some fight.

And Leeds, at last, provided it. Working the ball forward with more accurate passing and finally overcoming the Arsenal press, they won a corner and Struijk, who joked last week about practising headers after missing big chances, provided some momentum with a big old-fashioned header.

When Roberts got in on the left and pulled the ball back accurately for Costa to neatly poke in a second, there was a sudden urgency to the visitors that Arsenal plainly did not appreciate.

Mikel Arteta later claimed he knew what would come and had warned his players, but they still looked shaken by the fightback.

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When a Roberts backheel allowed Bamford enough room to take the most direct route to goal, only to be sandwiched by a pair of defenders inside the area, Attwell had a big decision to make and had he deemed it a foul, Arsenal would have been rocking.

Alas decide for Leeds, he did not and seconds later their rebellion could have been quashed entirely, but for Meslier’s woodwork which denied Aubameyang his fourth.

Time and the mountain they gave themselves to climb were against them and though they still suffered defeat, the second half met the basic expectations of spirit and attacking endeavour.

If any more has come to be expected of Leeds this season it is their own doing, thanks to all the punching above their weight they’ve managed to do.

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On the evidence of that second half, there will be more bloody noses before the final bell.

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