Arsenal’s five-goal battering of Leeds United was perhaps a wake-up call for Daniel Farke and his side for the remainder of the Premier League campaign.
Leeds United lost four league games 1-0 last season, as well as a cup tie to Middlesbrough 3-0 and another to Millwall 2-0. This was their heaviest defeat since a 4-0 defeat against QPR in April 2024.
The gulf in quality technically and tactically was there for all to see against Mikel Arteta’s side, who have designs on Premier League and Champions League success this term.
Of course, it may well be cliche to remind fans, but games like this will not decide whether Leeds remain in the Premier League in 2024/25. However, there were worrying signs for Jermaine Beckford to analyse.
Daniel Farke, Manager of Leeds United.
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
Leeds United break 132-year Port Vale record after 5-0 Arsenal defeat
Farke explained his gameplan of attacking Arsenal in the pre-match press conference, but Leeds played right into Arsenal’s hands in terms of how the team was set up stylistically.
Gary Neville criticised Leeds’ tactics of playing out from the back so short, with Arsenal under Arteta being one of the strongest sides in European football out of possession.
Leeds’ streak of unbeaten games also came to an end in defeat. Since the 30th of November 2024, Leeds have lost just three games, with two coming in the league to Arsenal yesterday and Portsmouth on the 9th of March.
Leeds were 11 games unbeaten ahead of the game at The Emirates. That run of games included eight wins and seven of those had come in a row from a 1-0 away win at Middlesbrough in April until the 1-0 win over Everton.
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Opta’s Jonny Cooper states that Leeds became just the second side in the entire history of the Football League to lose a game by five goals having gone into the game on a seven game winning league run.
The record has stood for 132 years, as the other side to hold it was Port Vale back in 1893.
Ao Tanaka and Willy Gnonto look on during Arsenal v Leeds United - Premier League
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Leeds’ second half performance broke another record
In the game, Leeds mustered just three shots, including one Pascal Struijk effort on target. It gave them a total xG (expected goals) total of just 0.17 for the game.
However, Arsenal had 11 shots to Leeds’ zero in the second half of the match. That fact is perhaps more concerning, and Cooper has detailed another statistic on that front.
He said: “The second half yesterday was the first time Leeds hadn’t had a shot in a single half of football for just over three years — also at the Emirates in a defeat in May 2022 (0 shots in the first half).”