It was a pretty dull cup tie at the Emirates last night, as Arsenal laboured for the first 78 minutes to try to break us down, but then Tierry Henry accepted his first chance of the night to score the only goal.

From the media coverage of the game you might have thought that no one was playing other than Henry. But in fact Leeds fielded a very young back four, including Zac Thompson at right back, while Varynen played in midfield, and Nunez started just behind Becchio. Andros Townsend was given permission to play, but I suppose it helps when his parent club is the opposition’s biggest local rivals.

It would be kind to say that the first half took a while to get going, with Leeds sitting very deep, and the Arsenal finishing being rather wayward. An out of form Asharvin sent a couple of shots high and wide, and when Ramsey managed to get a couple of shots on target there were Leeds defenders on hand to get in the way.

But we were struggling to get forward and pose any sort of threat of our own. Townsend saw quite a lot of the ball in wide position, but usually found himself closed down quickly and without any support. Becchio was also very isolated in the centre, and failed to control the ball whenever it was banged forward in his direction, so we ended up losing possession and Arsenal could just come back at us again.

Arteta sent a shot just wide and then we had our best chance of the first half when the ball came to Becchio on the half-volley after good work by Varynen , but the Argentinian snatched at his shot and could only send it well over the bar. Just before the break White blocked another Ramsey shot but we dealt with the resulting corner without too much difficulty and after all Arsenal’s possession we could be pleased to go in at half-time on level terms.

The Gunners tried to up the tempo after the break, with most of the threat coming from the lively Oxlade-Chamberlain. First he sent a shot wide after some neat footwork took him into the box, then sent over a decent cross which Lees had to head over his own bar, and finally produced a powerful shot which Lonegran did well to keep out. This prompted Grayson to try to shore things up at the back by replacing Varynen with Brown.

But it was the next substitution that caused the Arsenal fans to finally wake up, as Henry and Walcott came on, though Leeds could be thankful that Oxlade-Chamberlain was one of the players who was withdrawn to make way for them. The next opportunity fell to Nunez when he gained possession with Szczesny well out of his goal and he should have tried tried a chip, but instead he tried to hammer the ball along the ground and the Arsenal keeper was able to smother the danger without too much difficulty.

A few minutes later Grayson made his second change, as Mc.Cormack came on for Becchio and had to play in the lone striker role to which he is ill suited. I remember thinking that he might regret substituting Becchio if we conceded a goal and needed to chase the game, and so it came to pass in the 78^th minute. Just when it seemed that we might stand a chance of holding out for a replay, Henry evaded his marker and when a good pass picked him out he controlled the ball with his first touch before curling it past Lonegran and inside the far post.

After going behind Leeds came out and had a go at Arsenal, with Mc.Cormack having a header saved before Grayson finally changed to play up front, with Forssell coming on for Nunez with eight minutes left. And after Arshavin has wasted the chance to put the tie out of our reach by shooting into the side netting we had our final chance to keep ourselves in the cup, but Szczesny made a fine save from Forssell and Arsenal were able to play out injury time without any further problems.

So Arsenal went through to another home tie in the next round against Aston Villa, leaving Leeds with only the satisfaction of a good battling performance against one of the top sides in the Premiership. We can but hope that they also manage to raise their game in similar fashion on our next visit to London, at Selhurst Park this coming Saturday.

Photo: Action Images

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