At 1:30 am on December 19, Beijing time, the 18th round of the 2021-2022 English Premier League began. Arsenal played at Elland Road Stadium against Leeds United.
Confrontation record
This will be the 124th official match in the history of the two teams. Prior to this, Arsenal had 49 wins, 33 draws and 41 losses. The two teams have played against each other 26 times in the Premier League era, and Arsenal scored 13 wins, 5 draws and 8 losses. The two teams played in the two rounds of the Premier League last season. Arsenal drew 0-0 with Leeds United in the first leg, and the Gunners won 4-2 at home in the second leg. In addition, the two teams also met in the fourth round of the League Cup this season, Arsenal eliminated Leeds 2-0 at home.
Aspect 1: Arsenal strives for three consecutive victories to stay fourth
In the last round of the Premier League, Arsenal defeated West Ham United 2-0 at home, won a key four-game battle, won two consecutive league victories, and surpassed their opponents to rise to fourth place in the standings. In this round of the Premier League, Arsenal will be away against Leeds United. The Gunners have 8 wins and 2 draws against Leeds in all competitions in the past 10 games and remain undefeated. Regardless of overall strength or team status, Arsenal have a certain advantage. This game The Gunners will strive to take all three points to continue the victory. It is worth mentioning that due to the postponement of this round of West Ham United and Manchester United’s game, the currently ranked fifth West Ham United is 1 point behind Arsenal, sixth ranked Manchester United 2 points behind Arsenal, and seventh ranked Tottenham. 4 points behind Arsenal, this means that in this round of Arsenal’s game against Leeds, no matter what the result is, Arsenal will continue to rank fourth in the standings after the end of this round.
Aspect 2: Leeds United Disabled strikes as many as 8 people missed
Recently, Leeds United has been hit by a wave of injuries. There are as many as 7 players in the team suffering from injuries, including key players such as Rodrigo, Calvin Phillips and Bamford. Winger Daniel James was injured in the last round of the game. Whether he can play for Arsenal is still unknown. In addition, full-back Fierbo is suspended for this campaign and is determined to be unable to play. Leeds United will miss 8 players in this game. Leeds United lost to Chelsea and Manchester City one after another in the last two rounds of the Premier League, especially the 0-7 defeat to Manchester City in the last round, which has a great blow to the team’s morale. In this game, Leeds United will face another Big6 team, Arsenal, and Leeds United, which is still attacking, may not be able to stop the Gunners from winning streak.
Highlight 3: Arteta PK Bielsa
The matchup between the coaches of the two teams in this game will also be a highlight. As we all know, Arteta’s coaching career was followed by Guardiola, and Guardiola is Bielsa’s disciple. Arteta’s coaching style and philosophy are more or less influenced by Bielsa. But since Arteta became Arsenal coach, Bielsa has never defeated Arteta. The two have played 4 times as coaches. Arteta has 3 wins and 1 draw and remains undefeated. In this game, whether Arteta can continue his unbeaten record against Bielsa, we will wait and see.
Aspect 4: Aubameyang continues to be absent
Aubameyang was deprived of the captain’s armband due to a disciplinary incident. In the last two rounds of the Premier League, Aubameyang was excluded from the big list. In the pre-match press conference of this round of the Premier League, coach Altat confirmed that Aubameyang will continue to be absent and will not enter the squad against Leeds United. Despite the lack of a top scorer like Aubameyang, Arsenal’s offensive firepower in the last two games has not declined, but has blossomed. This allows the coach Arteta to be determined to continue to abandon Aubameyang. The Gabonese striker casts a shadow over Arsenal’s future and does not rule out the possibility of leaving the team.
Pre-match sound
Arteta (Arsenal coach): We are waiting for more testing. Waiting and watching is the only thing we can do now. In terms of health, I hope to do everything we can to protect everyone. Obviously, the vaccine program is in place and everyone is doing their best. I believe that everything we do can keep everyone healthy. We have performed very well in the past two games, but we need to maintain state continuity for 10 months to achieve the goals we want to achieve. Against Leeds United, Aubameyang will not play. This is the situation now. I sit in the position of the head coach to make the right decisions every day. My only goal is to keep the club in the best condition, protect our players, and show the best performance on the court.
Injury report
Leeds United: Struidk (injured), Rodrigo (injured), Calvin Phillips (injured), Bamford (injured), Shackleton (injured), Cooper (injured), Daniel -James (injured), Phil Bo (suspended)
Arsenal: Kolasinac (injured), Leno (suspected), Martinelli (suspected)
Predicted starter
Leeds United (3-5-1-1): 1-Meslier / 2-Erin, 14-Diego-Llorente, 35-Charlie-Cressville / 10-Rafinha, 4 -Forshaw, 15-Stewart-Dallas, 43-Klich, 22-Jack Harrison/1-Taylor Roberts/30-Gerhart
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): 32-Ramsdale/18-Fu An Jian Yang, 4-Ben White, 6-Gabriel, 20-Tavares/5-Thomas, 34 -Zhaka/7-Saka, 8-Edgau, 10-Smith-Ro/9-LacazetteReturn to Sohu to see more
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