It’s captain calamity as Ayling loses plot
Leeds fall into drop zone as skipper sees red
THIS was a game that started and pretty much finished with an injudicious back pass, a bad first touch and, as a consequence, a goal. The pass, in the fifth minute, was from Leeds captain Luke Ayling, the touch from his goalkeeper Illan Meslier, and the goal from Eddie Nketiah.
It really was that simple for Arsenal — and disastrous for Leeds who now look at real threat of relegation after Everton’s win at Leicester yesterday.
A bad day became even worse for Ayling when he was sent off for a two-footed lunge on Gabriel Martinelli in the 25th minute.
Seemingly intent on over-playing in and around their own penalty area, Leeds never looked like recovering.
Nketiah got his second five minutes after his first and, although the visitors scored with their first attempt on goal midway through the second half, that was as good as it got despite a late flurry.
Boss Jesse Marsch insisted his players can’t start accusing each other if they are to have any chance of beating the drop.
‘If we started playing the blame game with players, we’re screwed,’ he said. ‘We’ve got to stick together and fight for points, it’s not a time to point the finger.
‘We dug ourselves a massive hole and made a difficult task much, much more difficult. But our resolve and fight when the game was incredibly hard was amazing.
‘The ironic thing was this was 500 games for Luke, but it was a moment of poor judgment. He apologised to the group.
‘Young goalkeepers can make mistakes, but the rest of Illan’s game was quite good today. We are going to need him in the last three games.’
Asked if he believes Leeds can avoid relegation, Marsch added: ‘I do. We have to stay positive, stay strong and forge on.’
Mikel Arteta believes his players are showing they will not crack under the pressure of the top-four race as Arsenal head into a crucial derby with Spurs on Thursday when victory will secure Champions League qualification. ‘We are finding ways to win matches, we are getting better and dealing with it,’ he said.
The Leeds revival overseen by American coach Marsch has now hit the buffers and next it’s Chelsea at Elland Road on Wednesday night.
It feels as if they must take something from that — and the improvement on yesterday must be marked if they are to do so.
Despite the late attempt to grab something unlikely, this was a dreadful performance for the first hour. Marsch is supposed to have brought some sense of order to Leeds since the difficult final days of Marcelo Bielsa’s reign but this was suicide football.
Arsenal’s football was slick — and the disappointment for Arteta is that they didn’t score more.
The first goal was as bizarre as it sounds. Ayling’s pass from the right-back position was not the worst but Nketiah was close enough for a first-time clearance to be Meslier’s only option. Instead a heavy touch was applied and the Arsenal youngster slid the ball cleanly into the goal. Marsch’s team didn’t seem to understand how dangerous their attempts to play the ball through the Arsenal press were. Consistently the ball came straight back at them. It was no surprise the second goal arrived in only the tenth minute as Martinelli breezed past Ayling and pulled the ball back to Nketiah to side foot home.
For a while after that, it was open season on the Leeds goal. Ayling cleared one shot from the line, then Meslier denied Martinelli with his knee and Bukayo Saka with his shoulder. There was also a sharp parry from a deflected Martin Odegaard free-kick but, by then, Leeds were down to ten men.
Ayling had endured a difficult opening spell and Martinelli was the root cause. So when he saw the chance to assert himself he attempted to do so, only to fly in two-footed and reckless. Referee Chris Kavanagh booked Ayling immediately, then upgraded that to red on the advice of VAR.
From then on, Leeds were just looking to get out of London with some kind of credibility intact. Somehow they managed to do it and even halved the deficit in the second half but that was largely down to Arsenal’s failures in front of goal.
Martinelli was twice close early in the second half and lifted one straightforward chance over the bar when clean through. Nketiah was also dangerous with a header from a corner.
Leeds’ goal came in the 66th minute and came from out of nowhere. They had one shot, one shot on target and one corner up until the 90th minute and they all combined to give them their goal, defender Diego Llorente volleying in Jack Harrison’s delivery at the far post.
Arsenal continued to control the game and Odegaard should have scored with 15 minutes left only to drag the shot wide.
Still in the game, somehow, Leeds finally exerted themselves at the death. Meslier came up for a couple of set-pieces to worry his opposite number Aaron Ramsdale and, in stoppage time, sub Rodrigo headed into the Arsenal’s keeper’s arms after Junior Firpo won a flick-on at a free-kick.
ARSENAL (4-3-3): Ramsdale 6; Cedric 6, Holding 7, Gabriel 7, Tomiyasu 6; Odegaard 7, Elneny 7, Xhaka 6; Saka 6 (Pepe 68), Nketiah 8 (Lacazette 90), Martinelli 8 (Smith Rowe 78). Subs not used: Leno, Swanson, Tavares, Lokonga, M’Hand, Patino. Booked: Gabriel, Tomiyasu.
LEEDS (4-2-3-1): Meslier 5; Ayling 4, Koch 6, Llorente 6, Firpo 5; Klich 6, Phillips 5; Raphinha 5 (Rodrigo 60), James 6, Harrison 6; Gelhardt 6 (Struijk 28). Subs not used: Klaesson, Cresswell, Hjelde, Shackleton, Gray, Greenwood. Booked: Klich, Raphinha. Sent off: Ayling.
Man of the match: Eddie Nketiah.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh. Attendance: 60,108.