Arsenal’s youth prodigy Reiss Nelson netted the goal in the early part of the second half which helped them to proceed to the fourth round of the FA Cup. The victory was hard fought for Gunners as Championship leaders Leeds United gave a hard time to Arsenal at Emirates.
From the start, Leeds United was pressing high and was creating the problems for Arsenal’s defense. The Championship leaders were pushing forward and we’re trying to find the back of the net. Leeds had 11 shots on goal in the first 25 minutes alone against Mikel Arteta’s side. Leeds were playing all around the park and dominated the possession and striker Bamford was unlucky not to score the goal after 15 minutes. Jack Harrison played an excellent through ball but Bamford curled the ball over the bar.
In the first half, Arsenal looked like the shadow of the side which defeated Red Devils 2-0 at Emirates in the PL fixture on New Year’s Day. As it is best-said by the people, the game was the tale of two halves for Arsenal. Before Nelson scored the goal, Lacazette sent the ball flying over the bar in a free-kick and Luiz scoring almost in the initial minutes of the second half. However, in the 55th minute, Lacazette’s cross was not cleared which helped Nelson to collect the ball and put it past the defense and goalkeeper. After scoring the goal, Arsenal looked comfortable on the ball and guided themselves to the victory.
Reiss Nelson, the goal scorer of the night gave his opinions on the FA Cup game;
“Leeds are a great team and they pressed us, we didn’t expect it. We got the goal in the end and that is the most important thing,”
“This will give us confidence to go forward.”
Post-match, French forward Lacazette told that their new manager Mikel Arteta gave inspirational talks to the player and lifted them up. He said;
“Now I’m really pleased but we saw two different teams from the first to second half. I tried to tell them exactly what they were going to face and after 32 minutes we’d won one duel,”
“We changed our attitude, desire and organisation at halftime and then we were completely different. It was good for my players to learn and to suffer on the pitch.”
Arsenal will be facing AFC Bournemouth in the next round of the FA Cup fixture whereas it all ended for Leeds United.
