Bukayo Saka’s first half strike and a truckload of luck saw Arsenal defeat Leeds United 1-0 at Elland Road to retain top spot in the Premier League.
The result means the Gunners have won nine out of the first 10 fixtures of a league campaign for the first time ever but this was not a game where any Gooner could argue the points were deserved.
After an even first half, the home side laid siege to Arsenal’s goal after the break missing a series of chances, including a penalty by Patrick Bamford after a handball by William Saliba.
For a brief moment, Leeds thought they’d get another chance from the spot deep into stoppage time only for referee Chris Kavanagh to reverse his decision, and a red card for Gabriel, after reviewing the footage on the pitchside monitor.
At the end of a breathless afternoon, Mikel Arteta said: “It’s always intense here, we expected periods where it became really chaotic and we had to handle that situation.
“I think in the first half we had some really, really good moments where we outplayed them and should have scored two or three. We didn’t and we left the game open and from the first whistle in the second half, we started not at the rhythm and not making the right decisions time after time and we put ourselves in big trouble.
“Even when you get in those moments, I love the resilience, the fight, the character and the courage the team showed to win the game.
“We made it very difficult for ourselves because we didn’t close the game when we should have done. In the second half, we made too many mistakes that just gave opportunities and belief to Leeds. Credit to them, I think in the second half they were really good, an incredible atmosphere, and they deserve credit for that as well.
He added: “It’s always very hectic here, it’s not a coincidence winning like this. What the team shows, the character it shows, the personality it shows, the desire to play. There were players really struggling after Thursday night. To go Thursday night in Norway and then come to Leeds and win both games, the way we’ve done, big credit to the boys. It shows a lot about the team.
“It’s always really tough coming here, see the results here earlier in the season. So again, extremely happy because we keep winning. You have to be able to win in any context, in Norway it was very different to today and we found a way to win it.”
On the incident in stoppage time that saw the officials change their mind, he said: “I think the situation is clear, I haven’t looked it back but when everybody is telling me the same thing, there’s no complaints there.”
As Arteta said: “I love the resilience, the fight, the character and the courage the team showed to win the game.” Can’t argue with that.
First loss at home for Leeds. Plus we won v tricky Bodo on Thursday so two tougher matches than you’d expect. Keep it going!!!
Yes – and to complete “Super Sunday”, Liverpool did us a huge favour against City.
Ya, in years past we would have crumbled under that pressure. This is the Arsenal we have all wished for, no pushovers, holding their own.
Heeheehee
You said holding 😄
We are the Arsenal, we are Top of the league. We are the best.
As we progress in the Europa, we will be playing a lot of Sunday games, knowing we need a win to either keep City at bay or to keep up with them. Nerves of our young boys will be tested much more deeper into the season so experiences like today is invaluable. Big up the whole team. And Liverpool just scored as I’m typing this!
Happy invincible’s day 😊
You forgot the third option; need a win to extend our lead at the top of the table 😉
Happy Invincibles Day, everybody!
That was a terrific game btw. Anyone else watch it? Pleased that City lost, though.
If you mean Liverpool – Citeh then I watched it. Great game. Had a good laugh at Klopp getting sent off.
We’re 4 points clear of Citeh. Get in!
Yes, that’s the game; one of the most entertaining (non-Arsenal) games I’ve watched in a while.
Liverpool looked more like their old selves today. Van Dijk was a giant in defence and marking Haaland hard worked.
Happy Invincible’s Day everyone 😁😁
St. Invincibilus was cannon-ized in 2004 and we’ve been celebrating his feast day ever since. Let the libations flow my friends!
My libas are in full flow!
Now I’ll have to change the sheets tomorrow..
Happy Invincibles Day!! 🏆
Let’s not get nervous about the run let’s embrace it as our invincibles would have done !
They just did not want to get beat today (again!) & I loved that from boys !
The club needs to get a couple of invincibles in to help motivate the boys more.We will not be achieve another invincible season now but we need to play without a loss till the end.
Great win, but cant help but notice our centre backs, especially gabriel, are making 1 big mistake per game.
Someone also pls let gabriel know that’s not how channeling your inner vieira works.
Curious why you’re not mentioning Saliba, who made more mistakes than Gabriel today. Look at Gabriel’s numbers and see for yourself: he had an outstanding game.
Was commenting on their general performances (both) in recent games thats why i said per game, but i also notice gabriel having more mistakes this season
I guess Saliba is younger and still ironing out some deficiencies in his game. Gabriel seems like a more emotional player and as it’s in his character it’s unlikely to change much and as such he’s a bit of a ticking time bomb every game. It seemed to me that Leeds were targeting him for this reason and other teams will too. Today we got away with it, and I say this as a big fan of Gabriel, it is what it is.
We were giving the ball away all over the pitch. It’s just more noticeable when your CB’s do it.
But that “kickabout” with Bamford was quite uncalled for. You better concede a pen like he did against spurs but not give the ref a silly reason to send you off. Remember Citeh last season? He lost his head, we lost the game. He needs to keep a cool head at all times.
I agree with you on Gabriel, for me the weakest link in our team. One big mistake almost every match… Its happened too many times. There are times the numbers don’t tell the full story, so even though his numbers may seem OK today, he almost did his thing again.
Confirmed, he is certainly missing the Brazil flight to Qatar 😢
Sorry but you’re just one dimensional and do not grasp the whole picture. Of course it is easy to point out Gabriel makes one big mistake per game but it is not really true. He has done it on couple of ocasions, yes, but for each and every “big” mistake he’s got more than dozen interventions where the timing of his actions saved us from almost certain goal. As it was the case today. When the oposition is good he (and Saliba) and the rest of our defensive line will get exposed as they were against Leeds today. Yet I… Read more »
I’d rather have two CBs with a huge physical presence, who make a mistake here or there, than two polite CBs that never mess up. Sol Campbell, peak Kolo Toure, Koscielny – all excellent defenders who were prone to a mistake at times.
Gabriel and Saliba have massive, intimidating physical presence that must be tough to play against.
Looking ahead to next Sunday, Hasenhüttl would have seen that second half today and would be foolish to not instruct his players to replicate Leeds.
Could be another bumpy ride, and maybe another 1-0 to the Arsenal.
Not sure Southampton have the players for that level of tempo, but they have beaten us three times at St Mary’s since Hasenhüttl has been there so he clearly does his homework.
A home tie in Europe and the shorter trip to the south coast should make a difference to our energy levels. Do not underestimate the impact of getting home on Friday and travelling again on Saturday would gave had on the squad.
I hope they try to replicate Leeds, because they wouldn’t be able to. We’ll blow them away having learned the hard lessons of today.
Without VAR today we’d have dropped two points, lost Gabi for 3 games, seriously had our confidence dented, probably given Citeh a lift to have beaten liverpool tonight and had every ‘expert’ in the country saying our buble’s burst and we’ve got no discipline after yet another red. Thank you VAR and today’s ref!
Nice when it’s used properly for a change. Not forgetting a ref big enough to rectify his mistake.
Liverpool killed 3 birds with one stone today by beating City; they took 3 points of the reigning champions; they helped increase our lead at the top of the table; and they ensured that we remain the only top flight team in the modern era to have an unbeaten season on our CV.
Cheers Liverpool! And by the way, killing 3 birds with one stone means that you are right up there with Robin Hood & William Tell, hehehehehehehehehehehe.
For me, I would say what a performance and results for the boys and Artete. Most of us forgot that this team rarely trained for the Leeds game. They were in Norway on Thursday traveled back to London on Friday, traveled to Leeds on Saturday and play an early after Sunday game. How many of us can cope with this level of stress in our workplace? Yet, many are not happy that we found a way to win this game, even being Leeds first loss at home this season. This is the kind of result that gets you over the… Read more »
early afternoon*
Well it’s hard to argue with nine wins from ten games. If those grubby, thieving Manc’s hadn’t lucked out, it might have been a perfect ten.
What is so impressive is that the Liverpool and Leeds games, would have been lost in recent past seasons.
We have that long lost ‘inner toughness and steel’, back. At last. Please don’t lose it.
Becoming something of a weekend norm. Arsenal win and Tony through in Strictly. COYG!
I thought we did crumble, they missed a penalty and chances while we couldn’t put 2 passes together in the 2nd half. Gabriel did play well but there’s always a big mistake in him. A very lucky win and fortunate it wasn’t against a team with better forwards
As the author said “…a truckload of luck…”
Happy that they grind out results in two tough games
Hope Arteta gives the squad some days off this coming week. With the amount of games we have, we almlst don’t need to train.
We do need to train.
The physical aspect can be kept light, but for the mental cohesion of the team it is vital that complacency isn’t allowed to creep in and that can only be avoided with regular coaching, guidance and motivation, both as individuals and as a team.
To simply give everyone time off during the course of a busy fixture list is ridiculous.
That first penalty was offside in the build up, so not so lucky really and the miss was fair. Arsenal scored a quality goal in the first half and Leeds could not convert any chances.
And VAR also gave them a pen it’s only they didn’t take the gift. It was a question of which team wanted the win more. I think we deservedly won the game.
The way we kept them out gave me goosebumps.
Just like the George Graham days