If this is the \u2018fun boat\u2019 Mikel Arteta was referring to, it moored at Elland Road with a crashing wave of predictability.<\/p>\n
Arsenal<\/a> were never going to change anything fundamental in their approach as a direct response to the Manchester United defeat<\/a>. As the Premier League leaders with a perfect Champions League record, a first-leg advantage in a Carabao Cup semi-final and a plum FA Cup fourth-round draw, they never had to.<\/p>\n Arteta felt a slight shift in their collective mentality was necessary<\/a>, but having successfully blocked out the external noise all season to reach the point of vaguely justified Quadruple chat heading into February, there was no need for tactical reactionism.<\/p>\n It might satisfy a punditocracy and those neutrals and rivals ultimately willing Arsenal on to fail, but it would not serve the Gunners positively in any way.<\/p>\n Arteta\u2019s repurposing of this mission to end a 22-year odyssey back to the Premier League title as something for players and supporters to \u201cenjoy\u201d was all Arsenal needed, as Leeds will attest.<\/p>\n Arsenal\u2019s two biggest wins of the Premier League season so far are Leeds\u2019 two heaviest defeats. The 5-0 at the Emirates in August<\/a> was stark but this 4-0 thrashing was arguably more clear-cut, and certainly more impressive from the visitors.<\/p>\n And while it was built on those crushingly familiar foundations of goals from corners \u2013 in the second case almost quite literally \u2013 the confidence which flowed through a team so clearly uninhibited by that \u2018fear of failure\u2019 should quieten the noise again.<\/p>\n The loss of Bukayo Saka to an injury in the warm-up would have caused previous Arsenal teams to spontaneously collapse in on itself. This versatile, robust iteration of absurd depth simply called up a \u00a348.5m forward in his place to create a two-goal first-half advantage.<\/p>\n Martin Zubimendi\u2019s clever movement and fine flicked header gave Noni Madueke his first Premier League assist since December. Of 2024. Then ten minutes later a Madueke corner was punched into his own net by Karl Darlow under pressure from team-mate Dominic Calvert-Lewin.<\/p>\n It should have come as no surprise that Arsenal finally achieved their perfect form: Set Piece assisting Own Goal.<\/p>\n At that stage, 23 and a half games into their dominant season, no Arsenal player had scored more Premier League goals for them this season than the collective efforts of atrocious five-a-side team Darlow, Sam Johnstone, Yerson Mosquera, Georginio Rutter and Lisandro Martinez.<\/p>\n Viktor Gyokeres corrected that midway through the second half, ghosting to the front post to finish a fine Gabriel Martinelli cross and take his personal tally to a mammoth six league goals, half of which have come against Leeds.<\/p>\n