Kevin Whitcher's Arsenal Blog

  Arsenal 4 Leeds United 1     Premier League    Saturday 1st April 2023 3pm     There were hopes that Liverpool might have aided Arsenal’s title chances in the lunchtime kick off before the Gunners faced Leeds, but in spite of Mo Salah putting his side ahead at Manchester City, it was not to be. Unfortunately, Jurgen Klopp’s team are a much tougher prospect at home, so next Sunday’s trip to Anfield will surely not be as easy an afternoon as Guardiola’s side ultimately enjoyed. All Arsenal could do was respond and they matched City’s 4-1 scoreline at the end of a match that was anything but a formality for the opening half.    William Saliba remained unavailable, although fears about the fitness of Thomas Partey did not prevent him from starting. Jesus Gabriel was selected, although Trossard’s selection at the expense of Saka was due to what can only have been a mild illness, as the number 7 was able to make an appearance from the b...

Leeds United 0 Arsenal 1   Premier League   Sunday 16th October 2022 2pm     Three points are three points. But every three points tells a story, and this one was a drama alright. Arsenal may have increased their lead at the top of the league after Manchester City’s defeat at Liverpool, but there is no debate they rode their luck heavily in a difficult fixture at Elland Road. It’s hard to believe Leeds had only eight points on the board coming into this match, given how much difficulty they caused the Gunners after the interval. Mind you it took a while to get there. Some kind of technical issue with VAR and goal-line technology became apparent about a minute after kick off. It took an age to be resolved, but 40 minutes later, with the teams having spent a good while back in the dressing room, the game finally re-started. Arsenal were fielding the same eleven as beat Liverpool the previous weekend, with the two-footed Tomiyasu retained at left back. It was a fairly e...

Arsenal 2 Leeds 1   Premier League   Sunday 8th May 2022   2pm     Rather like the weekend before, a win’s a win, but in a strange kind of way, the one Arsenal enjoyed at home to a ten man Leeds team was less satisfying than the one away to West Ham. The team did very well to go two up early on, but after that, with Leeds having ten men for more than an hour, things went a little strange. Arsenal dominated – as you’d expect, and you sensed this was perhaps an opportunity to work on the goal difference – which currently favours the noisy neighbours at the other end of the Seven Sisters Road. However, in spite of chances being created, Mikel Arteta’s team failed to increase their lead. In fairness, Leeds’ tactics a man down seemed to focus on not being beaten out of sight, so in one respect, played as if it were 0-0 and they were hanging on for a point.   Eddie Nketiah scored both goals, and Leeds’ keeper Meslier will have sleepless nights at how he was caugh...

Arsenal 2 Leeds United 0   League Cup 4th Round   Tuesday 26th October 2021 7.45pm     I spoke to a Leeds fan on Monday who was of the view that the visitors last night would play a fairly inexperienced team for this League Cup tie, with the visit to Norwich next weekend far more important. It wasn’t the case in the end, and this made for a decent match-up in which Leeds were the better team in the opening 45 minutes. Mikel Arteta uses the competition to give a run out to his squad members that are not seeing much in the way of game time, more so this season because of the lack of European games, so the line-up did not feature too many surprises. One was the inclusion of Ben White alongside Rob Holding with Calum Chambers available, and one hopes the apparent bug that meant White’s removal after 55 minutes will not keep him out of contention at the weekend, when a visit to Leicester looms. Emile Smith Rowe also started, but aside from that, it was very much the back-...

Arsenal 4 Leeds United 2 Premier League Saturday 14th February 2021 4.30pm There were some interesting changes to the starting eleven against Leeds after the two defeats in the West Midlands that did for any momentum built up since Christmas in the Premier League. Culprits for the Wolves defeat – Luiz and Leno – returned, at the expense of Rob Holding and loanee Mathew Ryan. We wait until the next two matches to see if Holding was merely rested or has fallen below the two club’s two Brazilian centre backs in the pecking order. There was no shortage of cover on the bench – with he, Mari and Chambers in reserve should Luiz or Gabriel get crocked… or indeed sent off. Dani Ceballos replaced the injured Thomas Partey, whilst Lacazette and Pepe were both dropped to accommodate the return of Aubameyang and the first start of Martin Odegaard – the latter in the same line-up as Emile Smith Rowe. We were informed that Leeds had a wretched record in London under Bielsa, and going further back, fo...

  Leeds United 0 Arsenal 0 Premier League Sunday 22nd November 2020, 4.30pm The Premier League seems to be a far more open competition this season, the combination of no home support and VAR seeming to have leveled things up significantly. So we had a situation where Arsenal kicked off at Elland Road yesterday with the noisy neighbours at the top of the table. People are seriously worried that the unthinkable might happen with Jose Mourinho guiding the players, and after what happened in 2016, you can’t rule anything out, but there is still a long way to go before any medals are handed out, and things still relatively tight at the top end of the table. Having said that, on the basis of the two matches since Old Trafford, one does not expect Arsenal to be competing any time soon. The rebuild job that Mikel Arteta seemed to be making decent strides with four Premier League matches into the current season has gone off the rails. Since then, four points from five matches, the club in t...