Were Arsenal truly humbled despite beating Leeds? – Opinion

After three weeks of international football, were Arsenal well and truly humbled yesterday despite beating Leeds United in the end?

The Gunners struggled to score during the first half and, before long in the second period of the game, found themselves 1-0 down following a devastating James Justin blow, which perhaps came as a shock to supporters and everyone associated with the Gunners.

Last season, when we heralded our first top-flight title in 22 years, we were admittedly confident against all teams outside of the top six and won convincingly, especially against Leeds United.

Overall, we annihilated them 9-0 across both matches of the 2025/26 Premier League campaign, following a 5-0 beating at home and 4-0 thrashing away, which we certainly fell short of yesterday.

Leeds proved they would not be rolled over

Last season, the men in yellow and white finished 14th and didn’t even challenge us across 180 minutes of play, but this season they’ve already proved that they’re up for the fight and won’t be easily rolled over by Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, which I can’t blame them for.

We knew beforehand that Leeds had made an impressive unbeaten start to the season, and that showed at the Emirates.

Currently Leeds are sixth following their narrow defeat in north London, but are proving to be more of a force to be reckoned with.

At the same time, Arsenal were not willing to accept being a goal down when, on paper, they shouldn’t have been, which takes courage in itself whether the opponent is easy or not.