Arsenal returned to winning ways against an impressive Leeds United side at The Emirates in a stirring comeback win, that was largely due to an impressive 10-15 minute spell in the second half. Arsenal had looked sluggish and at times second best in the contest as Leeds grew into the game to deservedly lead. Arsenal dug deep and levelled soon after before turning to their bench for a match winner, with Bruno Guimaraes further embedding himself into the hearts of the Arsenal faithful with ANOTHER excellent goal to ensure the points remained in North London.
The lineup
I think it’s fair to say the lineup raised more than a few eyebrows when the teams were announced. With the reported injuries during the International break, I was very surprised to see both Kai Havertz and Ezri Konsa start, but it was the left wing selection that really came out of left field. I could be completely wrong with this, but I don’t remember Noni Madueke playing on the left side of Arsenal’s attack, from the start of a Premier League game, since last season’s home game against Leeds – last August!! Eberechi Eze was expected to slot in for Christos Tzolis but it was Madueke given the chance to stake his claim, in a show of faith for the winger.
The rest of the team pretty much picks itself at this stage, although I did think Jurrien Timber would start at right back, but I don’t think there’s a massive difference between the Dutchman and Ben White right now, so I’d hardly call it a shock.
The match
For large parts – it wasn’t great, was it?! If anyone was expecting a backlash from the Brighton game, I don’t think they got what they wanted, as Arsenal started in ‘sluggish’ mode. They weren’t particularly bad, but we struggled to match Leeds’ intensity and from the first whistle, you could see there were a few players off the pace. We created a few half chances here and there and had lots of the ball, as expected, but were finding it hard to get in behind a really well organised Leeds side.
Leeds on the other hand grew into the game and got more and more adventurous as the half went on, with David Raya the much busier of the two keepers, even if most of the saves were fairly routine for the Spaniard.
Into the second half and I was just waiting for that Mikel Arteta half time team talk to really kick in, when we went behind. A decent move down the left from Leeds, led to a brilliant cross from their overlapping wing back Gudmundsson which evaded all those in red in the Arsenal box and left James Justin with the relative simple task of blasting the ball into the empty net to give Leeds the lead.
It had been coming to be fair. This wasn’t a smash and grab job from the Yorkshire side. We had been poor to this stage and were now deservedly behind.
The goal itself was well worked, but seemed a bit too easy as a simple ball down the channel cut out half of our defence, leaving us completely exposed. To be fair, just before the Leeds opener, Martin Odegaard should have given Arsenal the lead after being found by Madueke in the ‘O-zone’ on the edge of the Leeds box. The Norweigan’s tame shot didn’t test James Trafford in the Leeds goal and we were made to pay shortly after.
The one saving grace from conceding was that it came relatively early, with plenty of time left to salvage a result.
That said, after seeing our performance up to that point, I couldn’t help but let my mind wonder into the ‘a draw’s not a disaster’ terrority in my mind, as one goal seemed improbable at this stage and two seemed completely beyond the current set of players. That’s why it’s a squad game these days!
As soon as we went behind, Mikel Arteta turned to his rather illustrious bench and it seemed like a quadruple change was in the offing at one stage, but before the reinforcements could enter the fray, Riccardo Calafiori had his say on proceedings.
A deep cross from the frustrating, yet actually quite productive (on second watching) Madueke, found Ben White at the back post who nodded back across for Calafiori (who else?!) to stab home from close range to level things up. We were behind for a little over 5 minutes.
Cue the changes, as now only a triple change was now required, with Eze asked to take his seat once more. Viktor Gyokeres, Jurrien Timber and Bruno Guimaraes all joined the party, with Kai Havertz, Ben White and Myles Lewis-Skelly making way.
It didn’t take long for the changes to, well…change things!!
Guimaraes looked a level above from the moment he entered the game and we already looked far more menacing in attack, forcing Leeds back and completely turning the game on its head. However, his best, was yet to come.
A brilliant flowing move involving Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and a brilliant intervention from Declan Rice left Guimaraes with a free shot at goal from the edge of the Leeds area…and this was not something you ever expected the Brazilian to pass up, as he drilled a controlled shot in the bottom left corner, to send The Emirates absolutely mental!!! What a turnaround.
That is what you pay your money for. Poor against Brighton, Guimaraes responding in the grand manner to deliver what proved to be the winner with 20 minutes still to play.
Arsenal should have added gloss to the scorline with Odegaard somehow missing from a few yards following great work from Rice and Saka missing yet another one on one with the last kick of the game. The score remained at 2-1, but the points were all that mattered at the end of the day, as Arsenal got away with one in the sunshine on Saturday afternoon! That’s what Champions do…right?
Three things that made me smile
1. Comeback win! – It’s a stressful way to win a football match, but who doesn’t love a comeback win!! I’m struggling to remember the last time we won after going behind. (Edit – I should have thought harder, it was Chelsea like a month ago!!) There’s something about the emotional roller coaster of going behind, start to contemplate defeat, only to turn it around and snatch all three points. Very satisfying!
2. Bruno Guimaraes is not the player I thought he was…he’s better – I’ve seen Guimaraes play against Arsenal, what feels like dozens of times, and I always had him down as this sort of hatchet man, with a bit of quality about him, but absolutely nails. After the links started to get more and more serious, I did the usual YouTube clips thing and read a few scouting reports and slowly started to realise what a player he was and what his progressive passing could do for us. Even then I didn’t think he would win us many matches, at least not in the way he did against Leeds (and Sunderland!!!). What a player. Something unbelievably class about that finish as well. Made it look simple, but I’m not sure how many of our players would actually put that away. I think Odegaard’s chance before Leeds scored was probably easier. More of this please!!!
3. Noni Madueke? – I came away from the game feeling how I usually feel towards Noni Madueke, incredibly frustrated and in this case I was also totally bemused as to how he played the full 90 for us. A couple of re-watches of the highlights, Match of The Day and the odd reel here and there and I’m seeing it a bit differently. Played a part in both goals (albeit a small part in the second), set up Odegaard for what should have been the opener and put in a few decent crosses for Havertz as well. He’s always going to be frustrating, but on another day Madueke could have come away with two or maybe even three assists no problem and I don’t think you can argue with output like that.
Any concerns?
Not going mad yet, but Bukayo Saka doesn’t look right to me. Never looked like scoring that chance at the end and the moment where he had two or three options, dwelled on the ball and ended up losing it really cheaply to Tanaka was really frustrating and very un-Saka like. Definitely concerning.
Final word
The performance in general I’m going to write off as Leeds being good on the day, a few of ours being off it/injured, first game after an unusual three week international break and being the lunch time kick off. There might be more to it, but there’s enough there to suggest otherwise, so I’m going to take the points and run on this occasion and not think too deeply about the whole thing!
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