Mikel Arteta was asked about Leeds United’s prospects upon beating the Whites for a second time.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has made a Leeds United prediction with a declaration about the Elland Road atmosphere and beautiful praise.
Arteta’s title-chasing Gunners side took on Leeds for the second time this season in Saturday afternoon’s Premier League clash at LS11, five months on from August’s 5-0 win against them at the Emirates.
Saturday’s clash initially looked like being much closer as Daniel Farke’s began well but Martin Zubimendi’s header from a Noni Madueke cross ultimately set the Gunners on their way to another comfortable success, this time by netting four goals without reply.
Defeat for Leeds left the club fifth-bottom and six points clear of the dropzone but also with a ringing endorsement from Arteta who believes the team will survive their first season back in the country’s top flight.
Asked post match by the YEP what he thought to Farke’s Whites, the Elland Road atmosphere and ultimately if he thought Leeds would stay up, Arteta said: “I think so.
“What they've done, I think, is very smart. It's really tough, they are really well organised, they have threats, they have quality.
“They have a lot of variation in relation to game contexts to play in different ways, and they have an amazing stadium with a beautiful atmosphere of football that brings the level of the rest of the team to a really difficult level to match.”
Pressed on whether he found the atmosphere at Elland Road more ‘hostile’ than anywhere else, Arteta reasoned: “No, the word I would use is that it was a beautiful football atmosphere.
“When you talk about the tradition and history of this league, this kind of stadium, this kind of atmosphere and people, that's what makes it unique. It's a joy to play football in these kinds of grounds, these atmospheres.”
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