A Rude Awakening

Facing Reality

Sometimes life comes at you fast, and for us Leeds fans, life came at us very fast on Saturday evening. After the high of Monday night's victory over Everton, the comedown was swift and brutal. Arsenal doused us in icy water and slapped us about the face, forcing us to confront reality. Not only did Leeds lose, they were thoroughly outclassed.

In all honesty, results like this are going to happen in the Premier League. PSR constraints mean that Leeds aren't able to turn over the squad quickly enough to compete with clubs in the upper echelons of the league. Even if the club could spend freely, Leeds are a newly promoted club who have a ceiling when it comes to the level of player they can attract right now. Certain players within the squad will step up - we saw evidence of this versus Everton - others won't make the cut and will be moved on. It sounds cold but the Premier League is ruthless and doesn't allow for sentimentality.

Naive Farke

One thing is for sure though, we cannot approach games against teams of similar calibre as Arsenal, with such bare-faced naivety. Daniel Farke has earned his chance to manage Leeds in the Premier League but he badly misjudged the approach to Saturday's game. Starting with Piroe up top was a mistake in my eyes. He is an excellent finisher on his day, but he lacks the requisite physical attributes to be an effective hold-up striker. Against teams of Arsenal's quality you need an attacking outlet that will help the ball stick, allowing the defence some respite. This wasn't happening on Saturday and the ball kept relentlessly returning towards the Leeds goal. Surely Nmecha would've offered more?

Lacklustre Defence

At the back, Farke started with the same defence as he did on Monday. The same defence who looked completely unfazed against Everton, didn't have the same luxury against this Arsenal team. The aim was clearly to try and repeat the same style of play as last year, by playing out from the back. The only problem is, this isn't the Championship. Opposing strikers give defenders less time on the ball, and punish mistakes with ruthless efficiency. Rodon and Struijk were still playing at Championship pace, often being harried and hassled into poor decision making. This didn't allow the team to build from the back.

Set-Piece Woes

Arsenal are the set-piece kings of the Premier League, but Leeds made it easy for them on Saturday. Goals from corners always seem avoidable, especially so when there are players with significant height advantages (Bornauw and Bijol) sitting on the bench. The idea of signing players with a certain physical profile is to try and bridge the gap in quality. This won't happen if they're not on the pitch. I'll be surprised if we don't see Bijol starting against Newcastle.

Overrun in Midfield

In midfield, Leeds just couldn't get a foothold in the game. The team obviously missed Ampadu acting as a screen in front of the defence, but it's hard to see how his presence would have changed much in terms of the end result. His replacement, Gruev, looked out his depth unfortunately, but he wasn't alone. Tanaka and Stach, both oustanding on Monday, really struggled to have any influence on the game and were completely overrun. The experience of Sean Longstaff would've served the team better.........possibly.

Lessons to be Learned

Maybe the impressive performance against Everton lulled Farke and the team into a false sense of security. Whereas, against Everton it was Leeds who looked sharp, against Arsenal the tables were turned. The players look unprepared and woefully ill-equipped to deal with the upgrade in speed and quality facing them. And it's Farke who must take responsibility for this. Matches like this won't define the season, games against the lower half will do that.

Hopefully this will serve as a lesson that the manager and players will learn from. They'll need to learn fast, though.