It was arguably our best performance of the season as we battered Arsenal 0-1, but frustratingly we have nothing to show for our efforts after missing several chances that would have earned at least a point from the game.

There was one change to make to the starting line-up with Sinisterra needing to be accommodated on his return from suspension. And it was Patrick Bamford who made way, presumably because is still not match fit, with Rodrigo moving up to be the main striker. Though the other personnel were the same it was a surprise to see Harrison playing centrally while Aaronson remained in the wide position he played in out of necessity last week.

There was a bizarre stoppage after only one minute, when a power failure in the area meant that the officials lost contact with the all-important VAR at Stockley park. And no, it wasn’t an option to go back to good old-fashioned refereeing as it’s now Premier League rules that all games have to use VAR.

After a total break of about 40 minutes we got back underway, and we would of course regret that we ever bothered to get VAR up again. The main in the studio was to make two decisions against us, and we failed to take advantage of the one decision that did go our way. I was hoping that at 2.45 the fourth official was going to hold up a board showing that 40 minutes injury time would be played, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.

Leeds looked lively for most of the first half and were unlucky when a shot from Sinisterra went just past the post. And Rodrigo was having a good game up until the 35th minute, when his stray pass led to Arsenal breaking upfield and the move ended with Saka shooting past Meslier to put the gunners in front.

Rodrigo’s head seemed to drop after that error, and he was the one sacrificed at the break so that Bamford could come on. And he seemed to have had a dramatic impact right away when he got the ball in the net within a minute of the restart, only for the goal to be disallowed for a foul on Gabriel. It was in this second period that Leeds would really put Arsenal under the cosh, with the league leaders having to hang on desperately to preserve their lead.

Bamford was then denied by Ramsdale after being put through for a one-on-one, but we seemed to have the perfect chance to equalise when the VAR man spotted a handball in the area. Last season’s penalty taker Raphinha is no longer with us so Bamford stepped up, but he put the ball past the post. In any case Ramsdale went the right way and might have got to it had it been on target.

Still Leeds dominated, but Bamford was denied by Ramsdale again and then Summerville shot over from close range after good work from Aaranson. Klich came on for Harrison to give the midfield a bit more oomph, and we seemed to have another great chance to snatch a point near the end, as a penalty was awarded and Gabriel dismissed for kicking out at Bamford.

But after the Arsenal players surrounded the referee it was VAR time again, and when the ref had looked at the monitor he decided that Bamford had fouled Gebriel on the way past and Arsenal got a free kick instead. Frustratingly, they didn’t start the video at the point when Gabriel intentionally ran across Bamford in the first place as our man ran through to challenge the keeper.

And even more bizarrely Gabriel’s red card was downgraded to a yellow, even though it was still violent conduct, regardless of what had happened before. Joffy came on for the final few minutes, with Sinisterra the man to make way after suffering from a touch of cramp, but we couldn’t force an equaliser in the time that remained, and we went down to a defeat that was hideously undeserved on the balance of play.

In the post-match press conference Jesse Marsch praised his players, but acknowledged that it was another game when we would have got a result if we had taken our chances. “It was a really good performance from us that showed, when we play the way we want to play, we can be very good, Arsenal are the best team in the league right now and today we were better.”

“We’re making it hard for ourselves by not capitalising on moments when we are on top of games. In the second half we could’ve scored four or five goals and we’d have walked away feeling like it was the perfect match. I’m not discouraged, the goals will come and if we keep playing like that and believing in what we’re trying to achieve here, we have big potential this season.”

Bamford was applauded off the field by most of the crowd at the end, but the verdict on social media wasn’t quite so forgiving. Is it just a just a case of him getting back to full fitness, or is he having another crisis of confidence, like a few of the spells he had when we were in the Championship? On the official website Tyler Adams praised his overall contribution to the game.

“I feel for him a little bit, but he came into the game and completely changed it. So he should have confidence moving forward that when he’s in those situations, especially in front of the goal, that he’s going to put them away. The team has complete confidence in him, so yeah, he’ll get one.” And Adams was also confident that if can continue to play that the results will come against lesser opponents.

“We know the potential of the team we have and we’re confident in the players that we have and the guys coming off the bench. When you put in a complete performance like that and you get nothing out of it, of course it’s a little bit disheartening. But now moving forward, even with a loss we can still take momentum from that game and take it into the game on Thursday.”

The result now means we have dropped to 15th in the table, with our poor run now extended to only two points from six games. The performance will have eased a lot of the pressure on Marsch, but he will know that if we keep dropping points as a result of missing chances we will have to go back into the transfer market in January for that experienced striker we failed to land in the summer.

Reuters

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