Easy Does It.

Leeds 1 – 3 Arsenal
19/01/11
FA Cup 3rd Round

After a thrilling first encounter at the Emirates Stadium, Leeds and Arsenal met last night in their FA Cup 3rd round replay at Elland Road with a capacity crowd in attendance. Fielding a similar side to the one that met Leeds 11 days ago Arsenals' only major change was the inclusion of Sami Nasri as replacement for Thomas Rosicky, while Leeds only had one change to their side with striker Becchio being replaced by Billy Paynter.

Leeds started the opening few minutes positively, with Max Gradel pulling a shot wide of the left post from the edge of the 18 yard box just half a minute in. But after the early enthusiasm of Leeds, Premiership class soon took over and with 5 minutes gone Samir Nasri tucked away Arsenals first with ease after Leeds failed to deal with Arshavin's ball through the Leeds defence, that bobbled into the path of the Arsenal youngster, allowing him to finish cooly into the bottom right hand corner. From then on Arsenal took control. Leeds could only poke balls away from the seemingly endless waves of Arsenal attacks, and when they could get a solid touch on the ball it was only to clear their lines and give themselves time to edge away from their own penalty box. Chances began to come easily for the Gunners and another goal seemed imminent as Arshavin let Song's cross run through under his boot from 5 yards out, and then firing low to Schmeichel's left from the edge of the box, forced a good save from the young keeper. Schmeichel was called on a number of times and looked in fine form as he saved Chamank's free header from close range, stretching out to get a solid parry on the effort. But Schmeichel's efforts were unable to prevent the Arsenal onslaught and after 35 minutes, Alex Song fired a lose ball from the right corner of the penalty area into the far top corner to double Arsenals lead.

After 35 minutes of barely having a touch, let alone a strike on goal, Leeds stunned Arsenal with a absolute cracker of a strike. A freekick from 25 yards out was never cleared from the edge of the Arsenal area, Snodgrass rolled the ball across and Bradley Johnson struck from 30 yards sending the ball into the top right hand corner to give Leeds fans hope of some FA Cup Magic. Johnson's strike seemed to inspire his team mates and they began to press and start to take the game to Arsenal right up to the break.

Leeds started the second half as they finished the first, with energy and aggression as they began to try and take the game to the away side. Arsenal still created chances with Song unable to finish after a wonderful through ball from Nasri, but the Championship side for the most part held off the the Premiership big boys. Leeds created a few chances but without really testing Arsenal's goal.
With 70 minutes gone Arsenal looked to seal the win, bringing on Fabregas and Van Persie to grab athe goal that would wrap up the tie, and they delivered in style. Fabregas released Bendtner on the right hand, who delivered the ball into the area, as Van Persie met the ball at the far post and headed the ball back across the keeper to give Arsenal the 3-1 lead they had been looking for. From then Arsenal took over the tie again staying in control over a demoralised Leeds side. Although the Yorkshire side tried to keep creating chances and take control they were never allowed to get a grip on the tie and again the class between the two sides became very apparent. As the final whistle blew Leeds fans cheered what was still a very impressive performance from the underdogs, but at the end of the day Arsenal were too good for them.

Arsenal will now face Huddersfield on the 30th of January while Leeds' attentions will be turned back to gaining promotion back to the Premiership for next year.