ALL IFS BUTTS
Bielsa’s boys can’t profit as nutt y Nic sees red
BERND LENO and the Elland Road goalposts spared Nicolas Pepe’s blushes after a moment of madness from the winger.
Arsenal’s record signing saw red after headbutting Leeds midfielder Ezgjan Alioski, leaving Mikel Arteta’s outfit to face over 40 minutes of secondhalf action a man down.
Yet despite the odds being stacked against them, a combination of Leno, the woodwork and some hugely frustrating finishing saw the Gunners escape from Yorkshire with a point.
Marcelo Bielsa can look puzzled by what he has seen at the best of times but he will need time to get over this.
His side enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, registered a huge 25 shots yet failed to hit the target with all but four of them in a relentless bombardment.
Three times in the final 10 minutes they hit the post or bar. Yet the fact Arsenal got away with a point was down to Leno standing firm, including a superb save from Stuart Dallas just after the hour.
A point was perhaps a decent end to a difficult week for Arsenal after news of a training ground bust- up between Dani Ceballos and David Luiz found its way into the public domain.
It was not the fight so much that annoyed Arteta but the subsequent leak.
Last night it was the other way round as Pepe’s moment of madness showed fight of the wrong sort. “Unacceptable,” was the manager’s very clear appraisal.
Unacceptable might sum up their plight in the league, too, after a point left Arsenal in the bottom half of the table and with just one goal in their r last five games.
Leeds will need some time to work k out just how they failed to secure what, t, on any other occasion, would surely y have been a comfortable victory.
Bielsa could not criticise his side for failing to create chances, even if he might have a few of them in for extra shooting training this morning. If Arteta had been frustrated after news of Ceballos and Luiz became public there was no such grey area with Pepe’s red card.
He became sucked into a running dispute with Alioski which ended with the Arsenal man deciding to plant a headbutt.
Alioski’s reaction was theatrical but there really was no excuse and referee Anthony Taylor did not need much time at the pitchside monitor to decide the same.
With the second half just six minutes old Arsenal had their work cut out to withstand Leeds’ assault but with the help of the goalposts – Rodrigo, Patrick Bamford and Raphinha all rattling the woodwork late – they did.
The one chance Arsenal had to pull a rabbit out of a hat fell to Bukayo Saka who was denied by a scrambling stop from Illan Meslier as he tried to round the Leeds keeper late on.