Arsenal 2 Leeds United 1: Very happy hour counts for nothing as champions flex their muscles — Yorkshire Post 10/10/26

By Stuart Rayner

For an hour it was a near-perfect away performance by Leeds United.

Daniel Farke did not send his side out to play the Gunners off the park, but they managed the first hour brilliantly to let hosts Arsenal have more of the ball, whilst they had the better of the chances.

And they did not just sit back and hope the front men could hit the Gunners on the counter-attack. Both wing-backs got high when their team had the ball, and early in the second half it was holding midfielder Ethan Ampadu winning the ball on the edge of Arsenal's area to create a chance Ao Tanaka had saved, and their goal came from a centre-back popping up in the penalty area in opening play.

But against a team of Arsenal's quality, an hour is not enough.

Leeds dropped their guard to allow Riccardo Califiori to equalise, and from there the Premier League champions swamped them, and ought to have won by more than 2-1.

The Whites’ unbeaten start to the Premier League season is over.

They could take pride from how they played until then, a gigantic improvement from their last visit to Ashburton Grove in August 2025, but this was a reminder that they still have more to do. Their wait for a win in the 20-year-old stadium goes on.

In the first half an Arsenal team who went into the international break on the back of their first defeat – first non-victory – of the season spent a lot of time passing the ball sideways high up in the middle third of the pitch whilst Leeds stayed well organised in front of them, catching them in their offside trap more than once.

Two Kai Havertz headers were all they really had to show for 59 per cent of possession whilst the visitors did more with less, creating a number of respectable chances.

The first of the game was theirs, Noah Okafor's shot from outside the area deflecting wide for a corner.

It was 21 minutes before James Trafford was called upon to make a save, but on his 24th birthday, it was a bit of a present. Havertz was able to pull away from Tarik Muharemovic as Noni Madueke put the ball over but by doing so he was unable to generate power – or direction.

Miles Lewis-Skelly had a shot from outside the area shortly afterwards but it was strangled at birth by Anton Stach.

Havertz's header in the 42nd minute also came from a Madueke cross, but this one was off target.

All the while Leeds were growing in confidence, their sharper passing reflecting that.

Stach ought to have forced a save in the 23rd but his volley when Gabriel Gudmundsson delivered the ball hit his team-mate, Jayden Bogle.

The wing-back forced a save minutes later, popping up in the inside-left channel to get on the end of Ao Tanaka's ball in. He was denied by David Raya coming off his line.

When Raya did so again to punch a Stach free-kick away in the 35th minute, Ethan Ampdau looped a header over him. The goalkeeper got back to it, and was able to stop his momentum dragging himself and the ball over the line.

The Leeds wing-back combined in the 44th minute, Bogle delivering for Gudmundsson, but he could not force the ball in from a tight angle. Bukayo Saka had a weak header in stoppage time when Harvertz nodded the ball back to him.

Arsenal came out for the second half with more purpose, Martin Odegaard forcing a low save in the 51st minute, but it was Leeds who went in front.

Amapdu's challenge high up saw Tanaka force a finger-tip save from just outside the area, then Justin went one better.

Gudmundsson got to the byline and pulled the ball back and with Calvert-Lewin unable to make meaningful contact, it went all the way to the back of the area for Justin to arrive onto it and find the net with a cool finish.

It changed the game, and not in the way Leeds would have hoped.

Affronted, Mikel Arteta immediately made a triple substitution and the pressure his side was able to exert meant that within a quarter of an hour, it was them in front.

Leeds do not have a monopoly on defensive players able to cause attacking problems.

When Madueke's 62nd-minute cross was knocked back by right-back Ben White, left-back Califiori arrived unmarked in a centre-forward position and finished like one not cleanly, just effectively, Trafford's two hands unable to keep the ball out.

He sliced across another shot when the ball came to him again five minutes later.

But another Gunners goal weas coming and one third of Arteta's triple substitution, Bruno Guinaraes, delivered it.

Odegaard and Declan Rice worked the ball across Leeds' penalty area and the Brazilian brilliantly found the bottom corner.

Now it was Farke trying to change things, first swapping his inside-forwards, then going 4-4-2, but he could not turn the tide.

Saka shot over on the counter-attack, Odegaard ought to have bundled the ball home when Rice poked it to him. The Gunners fluffed their line when Trafford was caught in possession way outside his area in stoppage time, and Saka ought to have put the last kick of the game into the net, not the advertising boards.