Marcelo Bielsa reveals Mateusz Klich 'sacrifice', defends Leeds United trio and takes blame for Arsenal defeat

The Whites, missing Kalvin Phillips in the defensive midfield role, went 3-0 down in the first half and left themselves too much to do, although at least made a real game of it in the second half.

Bielsa moved Pascal Struijk from centre-half into Phillips' position, shifted Luke Ayling inside from right-back to centre-back and gave Jamie Shackleton a start at full-back.

Arsenal gave their visitors a torrid first half but Bielsa felt it was more to do with how the two teams pressed each other and responded to the press that tipped the game in the Gunners' favour.

He revealed Mateusz Klich played while not fully fit and absolved the three players involved in the reshuffle of blame, taking responsibilty himself for not preparing his team as well as Mikel Arteta did Arsenal.

"I have to mention that Klich played this game while not being at 100 per cent, it was an act of generosity on his part," said the head coach.

"It was another difficulty we had to endure throughout the first half. I value a lot that he sacrificed himself to start this game.

"I think Pascal played a good game today. Shackleton's first half as a full-back was secure as a full-back. Ayling as a centre-back, like normally, made good responses. All teams have absences and not being able to count on Phillips is a disadvantage but I don't think it was this that unbalanced the game.

"In the first half we should have prevented them scoring three goals, if we were more organised in possession we could have had a different result. In the second half we shortened the margin with two goals but conceded the fourth goal and we had chances to score the third which means the ending of the game could have been different.

"When we were building up from the back we didn't manage to take the ball into their half cleanly. There were no surprises from either managers. They knew how we were going to press and they resolved this. We knew how they were going to press us and didn't manage to resolve this. You could see it clearly the opposing manager prepared the game better than I did."

But the second half was at least a better spectacle and Leeds enjoyed much more time in the opposition half. Goals from Struijk and Tyler Roberts, a half-time introduction, made Arsenal look far less comfortable.

"In the first half our circulation was interrupted and we couldn't bring the ball into the opponents' half," he said.

"In the first half we didn't manage to recover the ball quickly. What we didn't do well in the first half the opponent did well. In the second half we managed to do these things better than the opponent.

"I value a lot the way we played in the second half. I think we could have scored a third goal. I don't know if we would have deserved to draw if we had managed to score the third goal. I think the victory for Arsenal is fair. But we were 4-2, we had two or three options to make the game 4-3 and this would have made us hope we could draw the game."

One big positive for Leeds was the second half introduction of Niall Huggins. The Under 23s prospect had a tidy debut and enjoyed plenty of involvement as Leeds attempted to battle back into the game.

Bielsa was content with what the youngster contributed but highlighted the difficult conditions he was faced with.

"It's very difficult and unfair on a younger player like Niall to come into a game where we're losing 4-0 and to try and participate in getting us back in the game," said Bielsa.

"He had a balanced game. He didn't shine but didn't do anything badly."