Leeds arrived at the Emirates on Saturday without a Premier League defeat and went home with one, but only after leading for a spell. Ten minutes into the second half Gabriel Gudmundsson drove a low cross in from the left. James Justin slammed it past Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel, who were both standing on the line. Calafiori didn't stay the villain for long. Noni Madueke sent a deep cross to the back post and Ben White headed it back across goal, where Calafiori volleyed past James Trafford from close range.
Mikel Arteta's next move decided the game. Straight after the equaliser he took off White, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Kai Havertz and sent on Jurrien Timber, Bruno Guimaraes and Viktor Gyokeres. Guimaraes came on just after the hour and won it seven or eight minutes after Calafiori's goal, depending on whose clock you trust. The move went from Madueke to Martin Odegaard and on to Bukayo Saka. Saka found Declan Rice, whose backheel left Guimaraes to pick out the bottom corner from the edge of the area. Arsenal paid Newcastle £75m for him on 8 August 2026. A home debut winner against a side that hadn't lost in the league is exactly what that fee was meant to buy.
Arteta said the equaliser changed the mood in the ground. "We could sense the crowd, the energy changed immediately, and the finishers come in and make a huge difference as well to help us to win the game," he told TNT Sports. When he was asked what pleased him most, he went back to the 3-0 defeat at Brighton on 19 September 2026, still Arsenal's only league loss this season. "We weren't pleased about what we did against Brighton, and today was an opportunity to prove that right," he said. The response that mattered came from the bench rather than the starting eleven. Arteta can change three players at once against a side that hadn't lost and get a better team out of it, and that's the biggest difference between this squad and the ones that came close before. After Saturday's games Arsenal are second on 15 points.
Not every substitute's afternoon ended well, because Piero Hincapie came on in the 82nd minute and appears to have picked up an injury in the cool down afterwards, according to The Athletic.
The academy had a mixed day, the Under-18s beating Birmingham City 3-2 while the Under-21s drew 2-2 with Sunderland.
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