‘Unreal’, ‘World-class’ – Many Leeds fans thrilled by one player in FA Cup clash v Arsenal
The big question tonight was how Leeds United could cope against one of the best teams in England.
One word so far: brilliant.
As expected, all the noise was from the Leeds end at the Emirates.
And the players looked absolutely bang up for it and not in any way overawed by the occasion.
Robbie Gotts – on his debut after being on the bench for 35 games – played a beautifully floated ball through to Patrick Bamford in the opening minutes.
And Leeds had the best of the first half, with Mateusz Klich picking the wrong ball when he had a three-on-three situation developing.
The other debutant was goalkeeper Illan Meslier and he was reasonably quiet in the first half but showed why Marcelo Bielsa likes him so much with some brilliant distribution.
That was picked up by plenty of Leeds fans who all talked about his passing, with one saying he “looks like he can ping for days”.
Danny Murphy (BBC1 live coverage, 8pm) agreed with the Leeds fans and said, “The keeper’s distribution is absolutely tremendous”. We concur.
If Kiko Casilla does get banned then the Leeds fans can also rest assured that in Meslier they’ve got a confident and assured keeper with the ball at his feet.
If Arsenal play any better in the second half we might be able to assess his shot-stopping.
Here are the best reactions to his first 45 minutes…
https://twitter.com/MrCFrog/status/1214276618631499781
https://twitter.com/scott8687/status/1214276639309348865
https://twitter.com/adzng5/status/1214276665754497024
https://twitter.com/MikeyM666/status/1214276930536689664
https://twitter.com/j_oeyg/status/1214277066402729984
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