match report – player ratings – arteta reaction – Video
Arsenal remain top of the league after collecting three hard-earned points on an extraordinary afternoon at Elland Road.
The game was barely a minute old when it stopped. Apparently a power outage caused the referees’ communication systems to fail, there was no connection to the VAR headquarters and after some time on the pitch the game was suspended. The calls for the game to be umpired ‘old school’ felt fair when they were made, but it turned out we needed technology and without it we wouldn’t have won the game, in my opinion.
The first half was relatively even, with Arsenal perhaps a good value for the half-time lead. However, from the start, when the game got back on track, the threat from Leeds was obvious. Sinisterra fired wide early on, a sign of intent, while Arsenal found it difficult to click completely. However, sometimes we touch precious things. Great one-touch passing, confident at the back to play out of tight areas, but not as incisive as you’d like in the attacking third.
Gabriel Jesus probably should have scored, vaulting over the goalkeeper but also over the crossbar from a tight angle, but that opportunity came after Leeds hit the side net and Aaron Ramsdale made a clever save after the ball dropped nicely for them after. of a corner . This was not one-way traffic by any means.
The goal came after a rare cross from Rodrigo, but there’s a lot to like about how we made them pay for it. Saka arrives first and see how quickly Martin Odegaard reacts too. The pass from him to Saka is perfect and the definition, with his right foot, is simply outstanding. It’s already three games in a row that Saka has been the match winner, and on a day when we didn’t do all we can from an attacking perspective, that moment of genuine quality proved to be decisive.
I’m not sure why we were so off the pace in the second half. Leeds have to be given credit for the way they played, and it looked like half-time substitute Patrick Bamford had equalized seconds after play started again. He was ruled out for a foul on Gabriel, and I have to admit I think we got a bit of a generous decision there. If we had ruled out a goal for that at the other end I would be upset because I think it was more about the striker using his strength than an obvious foul, but thanks VAR and Paul Tierney, words I never thought of. I would use (and they kind of gross me out, but hey!).
Leeds dominated. Ramsdale made an important and painful save after a bad touch from Saliba, and the locals returned to the charge with a penalty to the French center-back by hand. It’s definitely a handball and definitely a penalty at that point in the game, but I don’t understand how the referees ruled it clear offside in the build-up.
I’m not even remotely interested in any explanation about the phases of the game: the guy is offside, the flag should have gone up when he received the ball, and I don’t know how the assistant referee on that side missed it. He literally couldn’t have been more perfectly placed, but the flag was left low, and Saliba’s cross then caused the penalty. Bamford stepped forward to take it…and quickly ripped it open. Thank God, because as harrowing as the 1-0 draw was, it would have been much worse if a goal had put even more wind in Leeds’ sails.
I was hoping it could be a wake-up call for Arsenal, but sometimes, as much as you want to, you can’t do much about the momentum of a game. Whether it was exhaustion after the midweek exploits, or something else, it’s hard to say. Mikel Arteta tried substitutions, bringing in Fabio Vieira for Odegaard and Kieran Tierney for Ben White, but Leeds stayed on top and should have turned their dominance into a goal. Ramsdale saved from Aaronson, and just in the 90th minute, his substitute Summerville didn’t get the perfect rhythm and shot over the crossbar from inside the box after a good move opened us up.
I’ll never know where the 6 minute stoppage time came from, but there were a couple of minutes of drama. Gabriel appeared to kick Bamford into the area, he went down screaming like a baby, the referee consulted his assistant, the same one who somehow missed the obvious offside, awarded Leeds another penalty and gave Gabriel a card. red.
But, the twist in the story is that Bamford had obviously fouled Gabriel first, and while you need to tell him not to react the way he did in situations like that, the fact that he was fouled earlier is the key part of this scenario. . The VAR told the referee to go look at the screen, it took a little long for my liking, but in the end it overturned the red card and the penalty, but somehow still gave Gabriel a yellow, which was a bit weird. . As for Bamford, it was pure Ruud van Nistelrooy, curiously in the week we met his PSV side. Gabriel didn’t make contact, Bamford went down like he’s been brutalized and, frankly, it makes him look like an asshole.
Without VAR and Bamford’s missed penalty, we’d be talking about a couple of egregious refereeing errors this morning. The game continued until the 99th minute, the referee was taking time out of his ass, but finally, finally, luckily, he blew the final whistle and the three points were ours. Did we fully deserve them? Probably not, but as William Munny told Little Bill in Unforgiven, “He doesn’t deserve anything to do with it.”
Watching a game like this, you tend to focus on what you lacked and what you didn’t do well, and from Arsenal’s point of view that was obvious. We didn’t control possession at all in the second half, creating hardly any chances and couldn’t stop Leeds from dominating. Still, it meant we had to defend, and although Leeds inevitably had some chances, I thought we defended with real intent. We knew the game wasn’t going the way we wanted it to, so we were up against the wall, holding on with Holding on and all that, and sometimes that’s what you have to do to win a game.
The focus on Gabriel after the game over the Bamford incident prevented him from getting the necessary applause for what I thought was a very good performance in the centre-half. I love Saliba as much as anyone else, but yesterday he was the more unstable of the two, and the great Brazilian defended with true heart. He made more clearances than anyone, he also blocked four shots, and one of them, during the second half, was crucial to keep us up. There’s a bit more discussion of him in the new Arsecast Extra, but to me, he deserved credit for what he did in the 99 minutes, not criticism for the split second where, in my opinion, the focus should be on the Bamford traps.
Later, Mikel Arteta said:
We left the game open and from the beginning, from the first whistle in the second half, we started without rhythm, without making the right decisions over and over again. We’re in big trouble. But then when you get to those moments, I love the resilience, the fight, the character and the courage that the team showed to win the game.
Going from Thursday night in Norway and then coming to Leeds and winning both games the way we’ve done – great credit to the boys. It shows a lot about the team.
Sometimes you have to win ugly and that usually comes with a bit of luck too. We had a bit of that yesterday, but players will probably take more of this than fans. Confidence and drive are interlinked, driven primarily by results, so it helps to know you can still win when you play poorly. It is not an excuse for the level of performance, but it also has an impact on how you are perceived as opposition. Teams know they can play well and still not win. It’s all in the mix.
Subsequently, Liverpool’s win against Man City ensured it was a happy Invincibles Day, as every team in the league has lost a game. Having spent 10 minutes on injury time during our game, I wasn’t expecting to get as involved in the game at Anfield as I was, so all in all it was a good but somewhat tiring day to be an Arsenal fan. However, it is easier to rest on the top of the table.
Okay, let’s leave it there. Andrew Allen and I recorded Arsecast Extra for you last night, since James is on vacation. All the links you need to listen/subscribe are below. Enjoy!
