Arsenal vs Leeds result: United make a statement before Gunners’ class eventually tells in FA Cup tie

Arsenal made the next round of the FA Cup, but it was Leeds United – if also Reiss Neilson – who made a statement.

You might even say it was a good result for both teams, given this season is really all about promotion for Leeds. This was appropriately enough their first game against a Premier League side under Marcelo Bielsa, let alone away to a club as big as this, and they made a point of making a show of what this team is all about. It did sometimes have the feel of a cult band going mainstream.

Some might point to how Leeds’ energy faded as the match went on, but this 1-0 defeat was really more about Arsenal having more quality. Nelson certainly showed his quality, as he poached the winner.

There were nevertheless long passages in this game – namely the entire first half – when it looked like precisely what it was: not a Premier League club against a Championship club, but a club who have been supremely coached and invested in a project for 18 months against, well, one who haven’t.

It made Leeds look like the Premier League team, even if the sense grew that it was going to be one of those games where they would regret missing so many first-half chances. That could well suit them, given this is a promotion-chasing club that could do without the extra complication of a cup run, and so much is made about his squads gradually running out of steam.

Which is why there’s that potential quip about this match being that issue in microcosm. Leeds started like a whirlwind, only to trail off.

It was probably more a case of that Premier League quality winning out. There’s also the fact this felt an even more animated Leeds performance at the start. It was as if the four changes, two extra days’ rest and single grand stage this represented did bring out more exhilarated force to the team than the energy-sapping Christmas schedule.

It meant they didn’t just look like a Premier League side, but one actually ready to consolidate their place there if they get back. There is an assertiveness about their first-half play, a swagger that this is where they belong and what they should be doing as they embarrassed Arsenal for long periods.

Some of that is obviously down to the very way Bielsa plays, but also the way he’s tapped in to what the identity of the club is supposed to be. He can’t yet change the identity of some of his players, good as they are in his system, and this ultimately came down to that difference in class.

Maybe it was itself a reminder of why reinforcements might end up important to actually securing promotion.

Patrick Bamford offers ideal movement in this tactical approach, but he’s a Championship forward for a reason, and that was evident with a few snatched chances. One smashed off the bar after some exquisite exchanges. He wasn’t the only culprit mind, and the worst miss was probably from Robbie Gotts. He lofted one chance over when it was begging to be dispatched into the net with force.

It just made the manner of Arsenal’s goal seem all the more inevitable, as the Premier League side squirmed in their first real opportunity.

It was a much bigger moment for Nelson, mind, who claimed his second goal for the club. He’s another that should be looking forward to seasons to come.

The rest of the game wasn’t so exciting, as Arsenal had their lead and found their feet. The game just entered that kind of period where the Premier League side can almost hold them off through sheer presence, Leeds unable to muster the same energy to lay a glove.

It might have been a bit easier to do so, of course, if referee Anthony Taylor had judged that Alex Lacazette should have been sent for landing what seemed a clear kick on Gaetano Berardi. But, with 11, Arsenal just had enough.

It was a slight retrograde step in terms of pure performance for Arteta’s side. It wasn’t just that they weren’t applying the principles of pressing and possession as sharply as Leeds had been, but that they weren’t doing so as sharply as in the win over Manchester United.

That is absolutely nothing to be worried about, though, since it is something that is going to be inevitable this early into a regime and with this changed a team. Another forward step had been made, however – for both teams, in different ways. They may not be in different divisions for too much longer.