Our 3️⃣ points as Arsenal restore title race lead in Leeds rout | OneFootball

Arsenal maintained their eight-point cushion in the Premier League title race with a 4-1 win over Leeds.

Here’s what we made of the action from the Emirates Stadium.

Jesus’s return to form is perfectly timed

Eyebrows were raised when Arsenal flung Gabriel Jesus into the starting line-up at Bukayo Saka’s apparent expense.

The Brazil international’s debut season in north London may deliver his fifth Premier League title but has not scaled the personal heights of his time at Manchester City.

Leaving the Etihad Stadium was supposed to unburden him from the shadow of an imposing attacking cohort but had merely replicated it with Saka’s resurgence.

Since racking up a semi-respectable five goals in his opening eight top-flight outings this season suggested the Midas touch has not fully eluded Jesus in his move south.

But inexplicably failing to find the target in the 14 games after scoring in last October’s derby win over Tottenham had raised doubts over the 25-year-old’s prolificacy.

Jesus emphatically answered those doubters against Leeds as he opened the scoring by winning, and successfully converting, a first-half penalty before adding another from open play after the interval.

His return to form could not have been better timed, either, with Saka only fit enough to start on the bench and their side lacking their usual spark in the opening half-hour.

Arteta avoids Manager of the Month ‘curse’

Mikel Arteta faced a potential kiss of death heading into this encounter after being named Premier League Manager of the Month for a sixth time.

The award’s infamous ‘curse’ had struck the Arsenal boss on successive occasions last season as he failed to win his next two games, both against Crystal Palace, while the latter 12 months ago coincided with a hat-trick of defeats.

It befell him again earlier this term with the January accolade, a third of the current campaign, seeing his side suffer a 1-0 reversal at a struggling Everton in early February.

Facing another relegation candidate in Leeds, it appeared that this particular jinx may rear its ugly head again as illness forced Saka to start the game on the substitutes’ bench.

Such misfortune became synonymous during Arteta’s final season as a player at the Emirates Stadium, when Arsène Wenger’s nearly men surrendered the chance of a first title in 12 years to Leicester City’s miracle workers.

After coming through a laboured 20-minute start, however, the Gunners’ current manager proved that the supposed hoodoo is really just that as they racked up a seventh consecutive top-flight victory.

Curse? What curse?

Leeds should start worrying

It speaks volumes of how largely comfortable Arsenal’s procession has been that the Premier League’s relegation battle now represents a greater spectacle.

Any of the nine teams currently in that scrap for survival could conceivably be dragged into the bottom three during the season’s final weeks.

Leeds know the perils of dropping out of the top flight as the 20-year anniversary 0f their previous demotion sits just 13 months away.

Whether they will still be gracing the Premier League when that particular advent rolls around does not look promising on this evidence.

Javi Gracia’s hopes of bamboozling Arsenal saw him field a 4-3-3 line-up with no defined striker as industry was prioritised over cutting edge

While it might have worked for fellow strugglers Bournemouth at the Emirates recently, the latest visitors lacked the imagination to spring a surprise.

They will need to find some actual solutions soon or ‘doing a Leeds’ will have a very different meaning a second time around.