Auba kills off Suicide Squad

Bielsa has a criminal record in the capital AS ARSENAL PREPARE FOR FORTNIGHT OF DESTINY, LEEDS LEND HELPING HAND

NOW we know why Leeds United are everybody’s second favourite team in the beautiful south.

Every time they come to London, they get spanked.

Marcelo Bielsa’s latest capital punishment did little to suggest his great entertainers will be anything but mid-table makeweights this season.

Leeds had already lost at Chelsea, Tottenham and Crystal Palace before their first-half apocalypse at the Emirates.

When the visitors’ team coach pulled up before kick-off, manager Bielsa strode into the marble halls and wandered over to study a team portrait of the Gunners and the trophies they won last year.

It was like a bloodhound staring out next door’s cats through the patio doors.

But his stare-way to heaven soon became the road to hell.

Britain’s ice age will melt away today – but not as fast as Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier’s first-half meltdown here.

Meslier lay down like a flat-packed wardrobe for the first instalment of

Pierre-emerick Aubameyang’s hat-trick.

Then Meslier was caught in possession like a Great Train Robber with a sackful of used fivers for the second and left his near post unguarded for Hector Bellerin to drive a coach and horses through the gap.

Bielsa knows his history, and his pre-match viewing in the Gunners’ portrait gallery was more a gesture of respect than checking out the rival posse of bounty hunters.

He knows all about the 1972 FA Cup final – Allan Clarke’s diving header, Mick Jones being helped up Wembley’s 39 steps by Norman Hunter to collect his winner’s medal after dislocating his elbow and all that.

He also knows you can’t give Arsenal a fourgoal head start – even the most open, unpredictable Gunners team this century.

Games like this will do nothing to help 12-goal top scorer Patrick Bamford reinforce his claims for an England call-up.

But Leeds are great fun to watch, and neutrals will hope Bielsa will continue to take his cue from the London pub songbook: Be steady and realistic, don’t hanker for gold or gems, be carefree and optimistic like Old Father Thames.

INCREDIBLY, Manchester United were top of the table just 19 days ago.

Now, after yet another huge setback, their title challenge looks over – they are seven points behind Manchester City, having played a game more.

Sadly for manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, his team’s ability to make fundamental mistakes shows why they are still some way short of sustaining a title challenge.

They have taken just 10 points from their last seven matches and three of those have been against teams in the bottom three.

United lost at home to Sheffield United and were held at the Hawthorns yesterday. Even in the most unpredictable of seasons, that sort of form will never be good enough to win the title. Not with City in their current mood.

Another peach of a goal from Bruno Fernandes hauled them level after an early Baggies opener but they couldn’t get their noses in front. In fact they were lucky West Brom were so wasteful with some real chances in the second half.

Sam Allardyce’s strugglers went ahead inside two minutes when Mbaye Diagne clambered all over Victor Lindelof to head home. Credit to the Baggies striker, but United centre-half Lindelof should surely have been more robust in his challenge. Such unconvincing defending has become United’s

Achilles heel.

Why on earth boss Solskjaer (right) picks Lindelof ahead of Eric Bailly is anyone’s guess.

That Diagne goal didn’t set United alarm bells ringing because seven of their eight victories away from home in the Premier League this season have come after falling behind.

And, sure enough, Fernandes levelled just before the break with a goal of real beauty.

Luke Shaw’s lovely cross from the left found Fernandes in the West Brom box and he spectacularly hooked a wonderful left-foot shot into the top corner.

It should have been the platform for United to build another away victory. West Brom after all are certainties for relegation according to bookies, with just two wins in 24 games

But it just never happened for Solskjaer’s men, who play Chelsea, West Ham,

Manchester City and Leicester in the next few weeks.

Indeed the Baggies arguably fashioned the better chances in the second half.

There was controversy in the 64th minute when referee Craig Pawson awarded a penalty after Semi Ajayi appeared to pull back Harry Maguire. But Pawson then changed his mind after checking the VAR screen, with Maguire adamant after the game that it should have stood.

But the late drama was still to come. Mason Greenwood was denied by West Brom keeper Sam Johnstone and Scott Mctominay had the rebound cleared off the line by Darnell

Furlong. West Brom did not just sit back. Diagne bundled Maguire off the ball and went clean through but his shot was blocked by David de Gea, who recovered quickly to push the rebound to safety.

Darnell Furlong’s low cross then picked out

Diagne in the box but the West Brom striker scooped the ball over the bar when it seemed easier to score.

Allardyce (above) put his head in his hands in the dugout and you could sympathise with him. It was a golden chance.

United, desperate for a second goal, could have won it right at the death but were thwarted by former Old Trafford keeper Johnstone. Deep into what used to be known as Fergie time, the 95th minute, Shaw put over a cross and Maguire headed towards goal only for Johnstone to pull off a sensational save by pushing the ball on to a post.

The United skipper beat the turf in frustration. He knew just how much a goal would have meant to Solskjaer’s team.

With that went any chance of victory and, surely, United’s last hope of the title.