Farke refuses to panic despite humbling defeat at Arsenal
Saturday, 23rd Aug 2025 21:48 by Tim Whelan
None of us were expecting to get anything from one of the hardest games of the season, but should we be worried by the final scoreline at Arsenal?
Daniel Farke put a brave face on it when he spoke to Match of the Day after the game. "Arsenal were on it today, and they were too good for us and we have to accept that they were the better side.A bit annoying they scored from the set-piece. If you're 2-0 down they are in the flow and in a good mood"
"it was always difficult in the second half.Disappointed with the outcome, but we know these things can happen if you want to play at the top level. This is not a season-defining game for us". "I can't remember many saves by Lucas Perri today. So five shots and five goals. If this comes together, it is a difficult away game."
Our manager had kept faith with those who started against Everton, with the one enforced change being like for like, as Gruev replaced the injured Ampadu in front of the back four. So four of our new signings were left to bide their time on the bench. And for the first half hour of the game this seemed to be working well.
Certainly Arsenal were having the bulk of the possession, and we had a bit of trouble trying to play out from the back, but in this phase of the game, the Gunners were restricted to just one decent chance. That came when Stach was caught in possession and the ball was slipped through to Gyokeres, but the expensive new signing didn't realise how much time he had and sent the ball wide.
And we went close ourselves with Struijk sending a powerful header goal wards at a corner, but he put it too close to Raya, and the Arsenal keeper tipped the ball over the bar. But just when the crowd were starting to get a bit restless, Arsenal showed us how it's done at a corner, as Timber's run took him between a couple of defenders and he headed Arsenal in front.
We looked to regroup and try to work our way back into the game, but suffered a severe setback deep into first half injury time. Again we were caught in possession as we tried to take the ball downfield, and it was played out to Saka on the right. Perri might have been expecting the Arsenal man to cross, but instead the ball whistled past his shoulder before he had time to move, and inside the far post.
And any hope of getting even a point from this game was snuffed out three minutes after the break. Gyokeres had looked as if he had the makings of an expensive flop, but he got off the mark for his new club with an impressive goal. He cut inside from the left past Bogle and Struijk, before firing past Perri at the near post.
To complete a truly diabolical 25 minutes of play for Leeds, Timber was able to scramble his second and Arsenal's fourth over the line. A VAR check for a possible handball gave us a bit of hope, but that was soon snuffed out. Finally Daniel Farke started to make some changes to give us a bit more of a physical presence, but by now the game was well and truly gone.
Piroe hadn't offered us any sort of outlet up front and was replaced by Nmencha, with Longstaff coming on for Tanaka. The second set of subs saw Aaronson on for Gnonto, while the new man Okafor got his first opportunity in place of James. We did start to look a bit more solid from then on, though it might have been that Arsenal eased off with the game won.
But the Gunners did bring on their new wonder kid Dowman, who started to cause some problems down their right once he'd got over his initial nerves. First he cased Gudmundsson to pick up an unlucky yellow card in his efforts to stop him. And just when we looked like getting to full time with no further damage, he fell over Stach's standing leg to earn a penalty.
That was duly dispatched by Gyokeres, and we had to survive five minutes of injury time before the final whistle put us out of our misery. So how worried should we be by this result, where the null points was expected, but not the margin of defeat. At least we can say that Arsenal had only one outstanding chance apart from the goals, and hope they will be equally clinical against our relegation rivals.
But maybe it's time to start to ring tye changes and use the physical presence we've invested so much in over the summer. It's fair enough to give the best of last season's team the chance to see what they can do in the Premier League, but if they're not quite up to it against the big boys then others should get their opportunity.
Daniel Farke is right that this match won't define our season, with most games to come against lesser opposition, but what team will he send out against Newcastle next week.
_Reuters_
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