Marcelo Bielsa on Leeds United's dominance of Arsenal, Raphinha's debut and Ian Poveda quelling doubts

His Whites had 25 shots in the goalless Elland Road clash, striking the woodwork three times and forcing Bernd Leno into two superb stops.

For Bielsa it was tale of two levels of dominance, for Leeds. The 52nd minute sending off of Nicolas Pepe, for an off the ball headbutt on Gjanni Alioski, handed them even more momentum having had the better of the first half.

"The game had two moments," said the Argentine.

"The first hour where we played 11 against 11 in which we dominated the game and didn't allow the opponent to react and the final half an hour where the dominance was even more clear.

"When we played 11 against 11 there were some battles that were difficult to control. In defence as well as in attack. In this sense we were able to establish some positive duels, where the attacks all finished in front of goal. In the final half an hour we had resources to create chances or some danger.

"Offensively we did enough to have deserved to establish a lead."

Patrick Bamford and Stuart Dallas were both denied by Leno, while Raphinha on his full debut and substitute Rodrigo struck the post and crossbar respectively. Bamford also saw a header come back off the post.

Bielsa admitted that their dominance of the Gunners could be seen as an indicator of just how far the club has come since he took over in 2018.

So too is the quality of the players they were able to bring to the club in the summer. Record signing Rodrigo caused the visitors major problems after his 70th minute entry, while Raphinha did enough to impress Bielsa in his first start and Ian Poveda also earned praise. The winger came on with 10 minutes to go, replacing right-back Luke Ayling, and quelled the doubts in Bielsa's mind.

"It was a positive performance [from Raphinha]," said Bielsa.

"He contributed to help and improve our defensive game. He wasn't able to contribute more unbalance individually himself but he had a big influence on the right hand side where we were dangerous.

"In this sense it was also very important the entry of [Ian] Poveda. In the time he played he had a lot of dynamic and he contributed a good amount. I doubted in making this change because Raphinha was having influence on his side but Poveda made a significant contribution.

"Sometimes you make changes with doubts. Sometimes you are correct and sometimes you make mistakes. For example the substitution of Ayling caused us to be a little bit more fragile down the right hand side. If we had some defensive difficulties, Dallas [who went to right-back] as a midfielder was making important contributions. The substitution of Rodrigo gave us a bigger weight in attack. The entry of the number 7 [Bukayo Saka] of our rivals made it more difficult."