'Not what we are here for' - Luke Ayling gives short shrift to 'entertaining' Leeds United tag in defeat

An objective that first and foremost concerned staying up.

With 15 games remaining, Marcelo Bielsa’s Whites are 14 points clear of the dropzone and will be back in the division’s top half should their game in hand be won.

They have also been a thoroughly entertaining watch and if, says defender Luke Ayling, that comes through winning then all well and good.

Yet Ayling insists his side will take no pride in providing entertainment in defeat on the back of Sunday’s 4-2 reverse at his former club Arsenal.

For 29-year-old Ayling, a first league return to the club that released him, aged 18, failed to provide a fairytale conclusion.

Instead, ‘Ayling & Co’ were given the runaround by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and his Gunners team-mates in a torrid first half at the Emirates.

By the end of it, Ayling’s side found themselves 3-0 down and seemingly on the receiving end of some hairdryer treatment from their Argentinian head coach during the break.

United then found themselves 4-0 down just two minutes after the restart as Aubameyang completed his hat-trick yet Aubameyang admitted himself that he knew Bielsa’s plucky Whites would not give up.

He was right, as goals from Pascal Struijk and Helder Costa began a second-half comeback that, ultimately, fell short.

Nevertheless, despite having half a team out injured, Bielsa’s newly promoted Whites had again impressed with their fightback.

Once again, Leeds had not failed to entertain.

Yet despite United’s league position, a disappointed and hurt Ayling said United were not in the Premier League just to put on a show in defeat.

“We are not in this game to entertain people,” said Ayling, speaking to BBC West Yorkshire Sport.

“If we entertain and win games then so be it but we are not here to entertain and get beat.

“That’s not what we are here for.

“We came to Arsenal to try and win a game of football and to go 4-0 down is disappointing.

“It’s quite easy to start playing when you are 4-0 down. You can run around and look like they are on the back foot a bit but the game is pretty much done in their eyes.

“Then we nick one, nick two and then maybe we think, if we nick another one, there might be something in it for us.

“But that third one never came and then it ended up quite comfortable for them in the end.

“We gave it a go but that’s not what we are here for.”

Instead, Ayling had been hoping for a dream return to a club at which he spent a decade as a youngster.

The Gunners are not quite the force they were yet Ayling knows a first-half display like United’s was always going to be punished given the players at Mikel Arteta’s disposal.

“We started bad and it got worse as the first half went on,” said Ayling, assessing his Arsenal return.

“We struggled to play out from the back, we struggled to press them like how we are used to.

“They got out pretty easy and we never got a foothold in that first half and that comes from us as players.”

Reflecting on why, Ayling pondered: “I think that we got caught trying to play out too much.

“We probably should have gone longer earlier and then, when we did go longer, our press wasn’t good enough in the first half.

"They got out and the goals were disappointing but that’s what happens when you come to a good team like this.

“If you start slow then you find yourself three, four-nil down and nowhere to go.”

In the end, 4-0 eventually became 4-2 and Ayling knows there were definite positives in the second half at the Emirates, not least the performance of 20-year-old substitute Niall Huggins on his senior debut for the Whites.

Huggins took to social media after his first minutes under Bielsa, hailing a proud day for himself and his family but equally acknowledging “not the result we wanted”.

Entertaining or otherwise, Ayling felt the same and the defender admitted there were choice words said at the half-time break.

Asked if Bielsa had given his side the hairdryer treatment during the interval, Ayling revealed: “There was a bit of shouting going on and that.

“There were a few things said and then a few changes made and we came out in the second half and I thought those changes did well.

“We had Niall come on for his Premiership debut at a place like Arsenal, which is brilliant for the boy, and he did well when he came on.

“There were a few harsh words said at half-time but that’s fair enough because we were poor.”

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/arsenals-hector-bellerin-makes-leeds-united-admission-after-second-half-fright-emirates-3135231

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/yorkshire-evening-post-launch-leeds-united-only-digital-subscription-ahead-premier-league-campaign-2967964

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Thank you Laura Collins