Arsenal came from behind to claim the points against an organized, stubborn Leeds side. The opening 60 minutes or so weren’t pretty but the visitors scoring seemed to wake the Gunners up. They leveled the scoreline less than 10 minutes after going behind and took the lead less than 10 minutes after that. Arsenal cruised home from 2-1 up, allowing Leeds absolutely nothing going forward, and squandering a few opportunities to put some gloss on the scoreline and the match out of reach. It was kind of a weird
game but in the end, the points are the only thing that really matter.
It’s easy to see why Leeds are off to a strong start and had only conceded three goals through five matches coming into today. They play hard, get back into shape quickly, and are well-organized. It’s tough to break down a back five once they’ve gotten set up. One of the ways to beat that type of setup is to attack quickly / directly and in transition.
On the handful of occasions when Arsenal broke quickly, Leeds were aided by referee Paul Tierney being lenient with his yellow cards. Eventually, Ao Tanaka and Ethan Ampadu were both booked, but the Japanese midfielder should count himself fortunate to have remained on the pitch. He should have been booked relatively early in the first half for grabbing Martin Ødegaard from behind in transition, but no foul was called. Then, he was properly booked. After that, he clearly grabbed Declan Rice’s wrist from behind in transition to slow him down before putting in a clean challenge to win the ball. The problem is that Tanaka doesn’t get into position to not commit a foul taking the ball off Rice without the grab.
Rice should have made a show of stopping when he felt the grab rather than fighting through the challenge only to lose the ball. If you want footballers to play through contact, you’ve got to start “rewarding” them for doing so by properly booking players for the fouls that you want attackers to play through. If that makes sense.
But let’s not let that digression take anything away from Leeds. They made it tough and uncomfortable for Arsenal for a good chunk of the game. The Gunners didn’t help themselves, particularly in the opening 30 minutes, by being sloppy with the ball and straying offside time and time again. Gabriel, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, and Martin Ødegaard were all well off it, again, particularly in the first half. Noni Madueke, who played on the left with Christos Tzolis out, provided the majority of Arsenal’s attacking threat.
It’s no coincidence, however, that Arsenal coming into the match as the first half wound down coincided with Tanaka and Ampadu being booked. It’s risky to fly around pressing and challenging for the ball when you’re carrying a card. Once that pair were slowed, things opened up, although you could argue that Leeds had the better of the chances in the first half. The shots were limited to tight angles and David Raya did his job, though.
There wasn’t much to speak of for either side in the first half. That’s kind of the thing, isn’t it? When you have to dedicate so much energy and attention to your defensive shape to frustrate Arsenal and put them off, it doesn’t leave much room for you to do much of anything going forward. It wasn’t as if Leeds were peppering the Arsenal goal. They had a couple half-chances and that was it.
Leeds opened the scoring after the break somewhat against the run of play with James Justin firing into an empty net after getting on the end of Gabriel Gudmundsson’s cross. It was appalling defending all around from Arsenal. It started with Declan Rice. He didn’t pursue the ball or the runner in behind him nearly as hard as it looked like he could / should have. Maybe he thought the ball over the top was going to run out of play and it checked up. Either way, most of the time, he stops that attacking move before it starts. Both Gabriel and David Raya tried to cut out the cross and missed, taking themselves out of position. Noni Madueke was likely in position to put James Justin off but didn’t track his run at all. Gabriel was able to scramble back to the goal line and had a chance to block / redirect the shot, but he ran too far back across the face of goal and couldn’t manage.
If you want a silver lining, that seems to be what it takes to score against Arsenal. Multiple players making defensive mistakes. A perfect ball over the top that checked up beautifully to keep from running out of play. A cross good enough to bait the keeper into coming for it and missing. A difficult finish too, albeit one fired at a wide open goal.
Fortunately, going behind woke Arsenal up. The tying goal came after Ben White headed a Noni Madueke cross back across the face of goal for an unmarked Riccardo Calafiori to volley home. The Italian was wide open in part because Kai Havertz had attacked the six-yard box, drawing both CBs to him and creating space behind.
Mikel Arteta had his subs up and ready to go before the equalizer and they came on before play restarted. Jurrien Timber replaced Ben White, Viktor Gyokeres replaced Kai Havertz, and Bruno Guimaraes replaced Myles Lewis-Skelly. The changes added energy and continued the momentum Arsenal had been building since going behind 1-0 and then leveling the scoreline.
The winning goal was a thing of beauty. A delicate chip from Martin Ødegaard to Madueke. The winger back to the captain on a give-and-go, who found Declan Rice slashing into the box. A brilliant spinning, backheeled flick from Rice into space for Bruno. And a buried shot from the top of the box. Passing and moving. Attacking with pace and intent. One and two touch football. Wonderful stuff.
Credit to Rice and Ødegaard, who were both not at their best for long stretches of the match: they were instrumental when it mattered most. Class is permanent, right? After his odd (lack of) effort on the Leeds goal, it seemed like Rice turned it up a few notches to atone for his mistake. He had one of his typical, impressive and powerful turn-and-drive up the pitch dribbles. He nearly created another goal by being relentless working around the corner inside the box on the endline.
After three goals to open the season, which apparently isn’t enough for some folks, Bukayo Saka continued the trend of doing pretty much everything right except scoring. He didn’t miss by much on a shot from the top of the box cutting in from the wing. It looked like his plant foot slipped ever so slightly just before making contact. He didn’t convert a breakaway that turned out to be the literal last kick of the match, too. Viktor Gyokeres put him in with a tidy pass, by the way. The Swede also had an odd moment where he took the ball off James Trafford, who had come 20+ yards out of the box, but couldn’t turn it into anything.
As I said, it was an odd game. The bottom line is that Arsenal came from behind to take three points against a Leeds United side that had yet to lose a Premier League match this season. The opening 60 minutes weren’t great but the closing 30 were excellent. On to the next.
