Arsenal vs Leeds United: Instant Reaction

Arsenal don't get caught in the trap and respond to City winning

Headline: Arsenal handle the speedbumps

There were ready made reasons why this match could have gone wrong. Arsenal lost William Saliba to injury, Arsenal lost Takaherio Tomiyasu for the rest of the season to injury, talismanic player of the month Bukayo Saka was dealing with an illness and couldn’t start, the team had minimal preparation time because of the international break, there is a massive trip to Anfield next weekend, Manchester City ripped apart Liverpool in the early match.

Instead, Arsenal handled all of that in stride and put together a solid performance.

It is a bit crazy to think that a 4 to 1 win could be thought of as just solid but I think this was just that. I have seen Arsenal play better I have seen them play worse and this was probably on the better side of the ledger but with the levels that Arsenal have raised their standards to this season it wasn’t particularly notable.

That is a testament to this team.

Arsenal were efficient in this match creating many good chances from a pretty modest number of shots and pressure in the final third. After the third goal looked to really conserve energy knowing that the job was all but done. I am sure that they will be kicking themselves a little bit given that they didn’t keep the clean sheet that Aaron Ramsdale deserved but it was nice to see them respond right back to restore the three-goal lead (and keep pace with City in the goal difference race).

The club keeps saying they are taking it one match at a time, and that each one is a cup final and I think they showed that was true today with this performance.

Stock Rising: Granit Xhaka