Arsenal must bounce back from Manchester United defeat with victory at Leeds 

After the misery of the Premier League defeat to Manchester United last Sunday, despite the midweek Champions League victory over rock-bottom Kairat Almaty, Arsenal need to bounce back against Leeds United on Saturday.  

Elland Road must bear witness to a positive response after having gained two points from our last three League matches.

Playing a day before both Manchester City and Aston Villa, it is imperative we win at in-form Leeds on Saturday.

David Raya, Gabriel, William Sailbia, Jurrien Timber, Declan Rice, Martin Zubimeni, Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard all got a complete midweek rest so there can be no excuses for not absolutely going for it in West Yorkshire.

Here's Ian Mills with his regular take on the week so far. 

It is Kai time for a comeback – Kai Havertz started his first game for the club for 357 days in a midfield role against the Kazakh champions, and he was quick to make an impact as his fine pass set up Viktor Gyokeres to open the scoring with just two minutes on the clock.

As a sidenote, that was the Swede’s tenth goal in his debut season – he is not scoring at the rate we expected, or he would have hoped however he is also not doing as badly as some would have you believe.

After Kairat levelled via a penalty, we regained the lead when Havertz received a pass from our skipper for the night, Ben White’s, before cutting inside a couple of opposition defenders to finish powerfully with a left footed effort.

Havertz also created a further chance for Gyokeres which the latter inadvertently passed on to Gabi Martinelli to score our third goal.

He was substituted at half time as had been pre-planned before the game, how ready he is to start Premier League games will become evident on Saturday afternoon in west Yorkshire.

Record Champions League run put into hibernation until Spring – we completed an impressive eighth successive win in the League stage of the Champions League to see us finish top of the 36 teams who competed in this stage of the competition.

In addition, Martinelli also added his sixth goal in this season’s Champions League, only Thierry Henry has ever scored more for the club in a single Champions League campaign and that was with seven.

Martinelli in so doing also joined Gyokeres on double figures for goals in 2025-26.

To cap an good evening there were also debuts for teenagers Ife Ibrahim and Brando Bailey-Joseph in a further nod to the prowess of Hale End.

We already knew we would have home advantage in the second leg of all ties we now play, and we also now await our opponents in the Round of 16 in March which will come from one of Atlanta, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund or Olympiacos.

But first we require three points from the cauldron that can be Elland Road.