Jesse Marsch on Arsenal loss, survival chances and Luke Ayling's red response - YEP 8/5/22

Leeds United dug themselves a hole with a calamitous start in their 2-1 defeat at Arsenal but Jesse Marsch believes they can climb out of it to escape relegation.

By Graham Smyth

A loss that owed much to a huge mistake from Illan Meslier and Luke Ayling's reckless red card challenge, coupled with Everton's win over Leicester City saw Marsch's Whites drop into the relegation zone.

Three games remain for them to save their Premier League status but they will have to do so without Ayling, who was captain at the Emirates in place of the injured Liam Cooper.

His sending off, for an awful tackle on Gabriel Martinelli, means Leeds could have just two of Marsch's seven man 'leadership council' available for games against Chelsea, Brighton and Brentford.

"It's a little bit ironic, given it's 500 matches for Luke and such an experienced player," said Marsch of Ayling's first half red card.

"A moment of poor judgement for him but he's been an incredible part of what we've accomplished so far since I've been here. I'm disappointed for him and the team, we just have to accept it and move forward.

"He apologised but it's not the time to point fingers. If we start playing the blame game with our team, we're screwed. The only potential we have to fight our way out is sticking together, being disciplined and believing in what we're doing. We have to push ourselves to be better."

Leeds will certainly need to be better than they were in the opening half an hour at Arsenal. Meslier's dithering with the ball inside his six-yard box allowed ex-Leeds loanee Eddie Nketiah to open the scoring, before Martinelli got the better of Raphinha and Ayling to set the striker up for his second.

Ayling's red card followed and Leeds found themselves dominated for the vast majority of the encounter, briefly breaking Arsenal's concentration to win a corner and make things more interesting with Diego Llorente's goal.

"I would just say we dug ourselves a massive hole and made a difficult task much much more difficult," said Marsch.

"Obviously far from the start that we wanted but our resolve and our fight, when the game was incredibly hard, was amazing. We did ourselves a big disservice with the start we had. A young keeper can make mistakes at times, it's how he responds and after that I thought he was quite good. We'll need him in the last three matches. We're down to not a lot of players. We need every guy to help us get through this situation.

"I know there's no rewards for coming away without points, especially now we're in the relegation zone but we have to stay positive, strong and we have to forge on. That's the only way we can operate right now. Our focus is fully on Chelsea right now, to do whatever we can to recover and prepare for another big match."

Marsch said the disappointment in his dressing room at full-time was 'massive' but his message to the team was that they must turn all their attention to Chelsea, at home on Wednesday night.

"We know we let ourselves down by the way we started," he said.

"I have to find a way to be real with them but positive, recover and go again. Not feel sorry for ourselves. That's the only way I can deal with tough moments. I said before I had a singular focus on the next four games, now it's on the next three games.

"We have to take the positive and the confidence and understand what kind of things can destroy our chances. The way we start and the mistakes we make will dig a bigger hole."

Marsch insists that Leeds, winless in three, can get themselves out of trouble in the next fortnight

"I do believe that [we can get out of it]," he added.