YEP Jury - Never a dull moment with Leeds United as more lessons are learned

As it transpired, the ‘old Leeds’ was very much in evidence in the second half, two goals were pegged back and, briefly, hopes were raised of a remarkable fight back.

So, overall, the jury was disappointed with the first-half display, Marcelo Bielsa’s starting line-up and once again losing in the capital but, for the most part, they’re still enjoying the rollercoaster ride.

DAVID WATKINS

Blimey! Never dull watching Leeds is it? I always expected we’d lose this one so the result is no surprise but the manner of it certainly was!

We started too slowly, made too many errors, and you can’t do that against any Premier League side.

Three-nil down in the blink of an eye was always going to be an uphill struggle and really, first half, Leeds were well beaten, albeit the problems were of our own making.

To then give away another soft goal just about capped yet another awful visit to the capital!

And yet, Leeds then started to show us what they are capable of and probably the most disappointing aspect of this defeat is the knowledge that, actually, we then showed we are just as good as they are!

A towering header by Pascal Struijk showed what a prospect he is and then a little cameo from Tyler Roberts to set up Costa for a goal got us right back in the game and it could have been even closer with some luck.

Too much to do though, so it just gets recorded as yet another defeat in London and we move on in the hope and expectation that we will learn the many lessons we were given today.

Man of the match: Pascal Struijk.

MATTHEW EVANS

Sunday afternoon into evening on the box and, yet again, I found myself watching an opposition that seemed to be outdoing themselves to stop Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds.

Arsenal have the talent in their ranks to ‘do a job on us’ and they did it successfully in the first half but, surely, they’d be higher in the table if they were as committed as this every week?

Arsenal join Chelsea and Manchester United in putting in their best home performance - against us.

The Gunners might have had the ability but their attitude waned at 60 minutes and we very nearly found a way back into the game.

The game mirrored Leeds boxer and well-documented Whites fan Josh Warrington’s disastrous evening in north London the previous night.

On the ropes early on and close to throwing in the towel before a courageous comeback attempt but, ultimately, leaving the Emirates a well-beaten outfit.

When will we put this London hoodoo behind us?

Man of the match: Tyler Roberts.

ANDY RHODES

All in all, this was a difficult afternoon.

We all know Leeds don’t fare well in London but to go from the performance against Palace to the first-half showing at the Emirates was something else.

Without Kalvin Phillips, United never do look the same, but Leeds really did miss his control in midfield. Mistakes were made and, ultimately, Arsenal barely broke a sweat.

It was a disjointed, incohesive first-half display by the visitors and there was no real coming back from it, despite the Whites’ best efforts and the Gunners’ generosity.

Pascal Struijk took his goal well after missing a hatfull last Monday, while Helder Costa’s goal will do his confidence a world of good. They still conceded chances but the second half was much, much better and showed that, if the tactics were right from the start, we might have ended up with a different result.

It was a difficult afternoon but Leeds have bigger games to come - ones which, crucially, don’t take place in a London postcode.

Man of the match: Raphinha.

MIKE GILL

From the start Leeds struggled to deal with Arsenal’s high pressing game.

Getting out of their own half, much less getting anything more than that proved a struggle. Aubameyang opened the scoring on 13 minutes and, with a couple of exceptions, that set the tone for the first half. A fortunate VAR-overturned penalty was a further warning and, on 43 minutes, the high press caught Meslier out as he failed to dribble the ball to safety and ended up catching Saka for a penalty. It was duly converted by Aubameyang, who was enjoying his return.

Meslier’s nightmare continued as he conceded a rare near-post effort from Bellerin. The second half continued with pressure from the gunners as Aubameyang completed his hat-trick with a diving header.

Substitutes Robert’s and Costa did make a difference and Leeds fought back. Pascal Struijk despatched a bullet header from a Raphina corner and shortly after Costa scored from close range after great work by Roberts. But that was it for United. Onwards and upwards.

Man of the match: Tyler Roberts.

KEITH INGHAM

Leeds lost another game in London, this time 4-2 to Arsenal.

Was it a fair reflection on the game? I’d say, as Leeds fought back from 4-0 to give some respectability to the score, you must give the Leeds players credit for continuing when many teams would have thrown the towel in. Leeds were undone by Patrick Aubamayeng who hit his first Premier League hat-trick since joining Arsenal.

His first he found a gap in Meslier’s near post, his second came from the penalty spot after Meslier brought down Saka and his third from a header when Costa and Roberts got in each other’s way to present Smith-Rowe with a chance to cross to Aubamayeng who headed in at the far post. To their immense credit, the players didn’t drop to their green and blue shirts, instead got back into the game with a header from Pascal Struijk and then halved the deficit when Costa netted.

Leeds also had other opportunities when Raphiha shot wide and Shackleton just failed to get on a pass that landed at his feet in the penalty area.

Arsenal also had chances and hit the bar and post.

I put a little of the blame at the door of Marcelo Bielsa; the coach changed three positions to move Struijk into midfield, Ayling went to centre-half and Jamie Shackleton came in at right-back.

I would have thought if either Dallas or Klich could have been used in the holding midfield role it might not have meant another game where square pegs were out in round holes, but what do I know!

I take something that Leeds continued to press and got within a couple of goals after they were dominated for most of the first half and the beginning of the second.

This season is a learning curve so the defeat should be taken as such.

Arsenal deserved the win after a few poor games previously.

Man of the match: Tyler Roberts (made an impact when he came on).

JACOB STARR

The less said about that first half, the better. I can think of one reason why that catastrophic first 45 minutes occurred. ‘London’, and perhaps a bit of Illan Meslier.

A three-goal deficit at the break was largely due to goalkeeping errors from the young Frenchman, whose performance was a complete contrast to his incredible debut on the same turf in last season’s FA Cup.

We were given too much work to do in the second half, particularly after Pierre Emerick Aubameyang completed his hat-trick within three minutes of the restart.

However, a spirited fightback from United ultimately halved the scoreline and helped to soften the blow of an extension to our abysmal record in the capital.

Criticism could be aimed towards Marcelo Bielsa for the selection, reshuffling the pack to fill the void vacated by the injured Kalvin Phillips, rather than a like-for-like change although his substitutions did make a positive difference.

Helder Costa was the second man on the scoresheet after Pascal Struijk, Tyler Roberts looked lively, and debutant Niall Huggins looked more than assured at left-back. A potential successor of Gjanni Alioski’s?

All in all, a tale of two halves littered with costly mistakes, and we still scored twice.

Man of the match: Raphinha.

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