Arsenal came back from a goal down to beat Leeds United 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, with Brazilian Bruno Guimaraes coming off the bench to net the winner as the Premier League resumed following a lengthy international break.
The home side were looking to bounce back having slumped to a 3-0 defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion in the last game before the break, but they endured a frustrating first half in which they struggled to create chances.
Play improved in the second half as captain Martin Odegaard forced a smart save from James Trafford six minutes after the break, but Leeds took the lead in the 55th minute when James Justin slammed home a clever pull-back from Gabriel Gudmundsson.
Riccardo Calafiori levelled for Arsenal seven minutes later, the Italian jumping to steer home Ben White’s knock-down, and sensing that his side could grab all three points, manager Mikel Arteta rang the changes.
He sent on Guimaraes, Jurrien Timber and Viktor Gyokeres, and he was rewarded when Guimaraes grabbed the winner with a brilliantly worked goal in the 70th minute, sending a low shot into the far corner of the net from the edge of the box.
“It was such a difficult game, obviously after the international break it’s never easy, especially after a defeat in our last game,” Calafiori said. “I think we had some tough moments, but I think we deserved the winner. We acted well after the goal we conceded.”
Champions Arsenal climbed to second in the table on 15 points, behind Manchester City on goal difference. Leeds are fifth on nine points.
City travel to Liverpool on Sunday for their first game since an independent commission found the club guilty of more than 100 serious breaches of the league’s financial rules over nine years, as well as charges relating to their failure to co-operate with the investigation.
City have denied wrongdoing and said they will appeal against the decision.