The Sunday Times - UK (2021-12-19)

2GS The Sunday Times December 19, 2021 7

West Yorkshire Police interviewed

Arsenal players over allegations that

some of them were racially abused by

Leeds United supporters during their

4-1 win at Elland Road yesterday.

The referee, Andre Marriner,

briefly halted the game in the 33rd

minute after an incident was

reported by members of the Arsenal

bench. After the game, two police

officers could be seen interviewing

Arsenal players, including Emile

Smith Rowe, by the tunnel. Mikel

Arteta, the Arsenal manager,

confirmed the police investigation.

“There were players on our bench

and a few of them heard these

comments,” Arteta said. “I don’t

know exactly who it was [aimed at].

They will have to be interviewed and

deal with the authorities in that case.”

Marriner will mention the incident

in his report and the FA can act upon

it, although a police investigation

would take precedence.

Meanwhile, Arteta revealed that

Albert Sambi Lokonga and Pablo

Marí tested positive for Covid-19, with

Arsenal closing their training ground

on Thursday as a safety measure.

“It was purely precautionary,” he

said. “We wanted to protect our

people and the medical staff made

the right call to close it and make sure

all the tests were negative and when

we were back everybody was safe.”

Arteta, however, believes it is

possibly only to “educate” rather

than pressure his players into being

vaccinated. “We can suggest and get

players to get vaccinated but it’s a

really personal thing to do and we

don’t think we can push any further

than that,” he added. “We have to

educate them, try to give them the

right information.”

Ian Whittell

Our players

heard racist

comments,

says Arteta

Bielsa feeling the heat

Arteta can speak better than most

about the vagaries of football

management after his team’s third

consecutive victory left them well

placed in fourth. It was only a little

over three months ago that a 5-0

humiliation away to his former club

Manchester City appeared to have

left him on the brink of dismissal.

Now he looks to have turned

Arsenal into a team capable

of competing for a

Champions League

place.

By contrast, for the

first time, serious

questions are being

asked about whether

Marcelo Bielsa will see

out the season, even

allowing for Leeds’s

injury problems. The 66-

year-old Argentinian, inset, has

long been guaranteed cult status

among Leeds fans, sections of whom

sang his name yesterday. But, even

allowing for the enforced changes in

personnel against Arsenal, there was

a lack of direction and no pattern to

their play in the first half. Nor, more

tellingly, was there any of their usual

high-energy, pressing game.

Down to the bare bones

Leeds have no Covid cases in their

first-team squad, but had nine

players unavailable through injury or

suspension last night — eight of whom

would probably have made Bielsa’s

starting XI, including Kalvin Phillips,

Patrick Bamford and Dan James.

Bielsa seems content to operate with

small senior squads, but that policy

has hurt Leeds in recent games,

culminating in the 7-0 thrashing by

Manchester City on Tuesday.

One interesting — and famous —

name on the Leeds bench was Archie

Gray, the great-nephew of the

legendary former Leeds winger,

Eddie. Aged 15 years and 281 days, he

became the youngest player in a first-

team squad for the club.

Pierre-Emerick who?

The absence of Pierre-Emerick

Aubameyang has hardly proved a

problem so far for Mikel Arteta,

thanks largely to the form of Gabriel

Martinelli. The 20-year-old Brazilian

is enjoying a remarkable mid-season

renaissance, as he proved with two

goals inside 12 first-half minutes.

In a disappointing 2020-21

campaign, Martinelli

scored only two goals in

22 games, a stark

contrast to the start of

his Arsenal career,

when he scored seven

times in his first seven

appearances.

On the mark against

West Ham United in

midweek, he now has four

goals in seven starts this season,

and against an admittedly weakened

Leeds United he was virtually

unplayable at times.

With Aubameyang’s Arsenal future

the subject of much conjecture, after

he was stripped of the captaincy for

failing to return from a trip to France

at the agreed time, this sort of

continued form from the youngster

may make Arteta’s decision about

what to do with the exiled striker all

the easier.

Arsenal Covid outbreak

Arteta admitted that his club had

recorded positive Covid-19 tests

among staff and players, with Albert

Sambi Lokonga absent from Elland

Road for that reason. Still, with

Aubameyang out of the squad, Arteta

named an unchanged starting XI for

the fourth consecutive game.

“We could not train the day after

the match [with West Ham, on

Wednesday] because we had to close

Colney [their training ground],”

Arteta said before kick-off. “We had a

few cases. We had quite a lot of the

staff members and a few players as

well.”

Ian Whittell

MIKE EGERTON

in the 74th minute, when Ben White

dived in with both feet off the ground

and tripped Gelhardt.

Raphinha thumped in the penalty

to get Leeds back in the game.

Arsenal were forced to concentrate

on their defending for the first time in

the match and Tyler Roberts’s power-

ful shot was blocked as Arsenal got

bodies in the way of the ball around

their own box, before Smith Rowe

availed of some more lax defending to

get himself on the scoresheet late in

the game.

Bielsa, it would appear, is not for

turning, even though Liverpool

are up next. “You have to have a

tolerance to the frustration and

be very convinced in a big way

where you are going to absorb

these types of moments,” the

Leeds head coach said.

Martinelli beats

Ayling to prod in his

second while

Ramsdale, below,

celebrates

Arsenal’s

fourth

goal

United closed their Carrington

training ground on Thursday for

the second time in the week amid

a Covid outbreak that left Ralf

Rangnick with seven fit first-team

players.

Aston Villa v Burnley was called

off yesterday two hours 15

minutes before kick-off,

prompting criticism from the

Football Supporters’ Association

(FSA). After PCR test results at

10am, Villa provided proof at

midday that they would be unable

to pick the minimum required 14

players for their match-day squad.

Struggling Bielsa even had

to put 15-year-old on bench

FOOTBALL

LEAGUE

FOCUS

Morecambe were

held 0-0 at home by

Fleetwood Town.

LEAGUE TWO

Sutton United leapt

into the automatic

promotion places as

Donovan Wilson’s goal

gave them a 1-0 win

against Harrogate

Town.

Two Jack Beesley

goals helped Rochdale

defeat high-flying

Newport County 3-0.

Jay Spearing’s shot

from 18 yards was

enough to give

Tranmere Rovers a

fourth straight league

win, 1-0 against Leyton

Orient.

The Bradford City

owner Stefan Rupp has

confirmed the club is

not for sale and has

rejected an offer from

the WAGMI Group.

equalised from the

penalty spot.

Peterborough

United’s away-day

misery continued with

a 3-1 loss at Blackpool.

They have taken only

three points from a

possible 36 on their

travels this term.

It was a fifth straight

away defeat for Darren

Ferguson’s team after

Siriki Dembélé gave

them an 11th-minute

lead. Blackpool, who

had lost their previous

three games and had

gone seven without a

win, equalised via Keshi

Anderson’s close-range

shot. Substitutes

Sonny Carey and Jerry

Yates secured the win.

Huddersfield Town

won for the first time in

five matches, 3-2 away

to Bristol City where

crowd trouble stopped

the game for several

minutes. Andreas

Weimann gave the

hosts a second-minute

lead before City

goalkeeper Dan

Bentley saved Danny

Ward’s penalty. Duane

Holmes equalised, with

Daniel Sinani firing

Huddersfield in front.

Ward headed a third

but Weimann’s second,

in stoppage time, came

too late for a home

revival.

The match was

stopped in the second

half when home fans

threw missiles as

Huddersfield prepared

to take a corner. The

referee sent both

teams to the dugouts

before play restarted.

LEAGUE ONE

The former Manchester

United coach, Kieran

McKenna, takes over at

Ipswich Town

tomorrow and would

have been encouraged

by his new charges’ 1-1

draw with Sunderland

in front of more than

29,000 at Portman

Road. James Norwood

headed Ipswich in front

in first-half stoppage

time. Nathan

Broadhead fired the

50th-minute equaliser.

Leaders Rotherham

United went a 16th

league game without

defeat, thanks to Daniel

Barlaser’s strike in the

1-0 win away to

Cambridge United.

Second-placed

Wigan Athletic are 12

games undefeated

after a 3-2 win away to

injury- and Covid-hit

Oxford United. The

visitors went into a 2-0

lead before the in-form

hosts struck back only

for James McClean to

net Wigan’s late winner.

Plymouth Argyle

ended a five-game run

without a win by

beating in-form

Charlton Athletic 1-0.

Daniel Udoh hit two

as Shrewsbury Town

played 50 minutes with

ten men after Tom

Bloxham’s dismissal

but still scored twice in

that period to beat

Cheltenham Town 3-1.

5

Salford City beat

Stevenage 1-0. They

have won all five EFL

games played

against yesterday’s

opponents

CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND-UP

Brennan Johnson

continued his run of

not losing a senior club

game when scoring

after hitting the winner

in Nottingham Forest’s

2-1 defeat of Hull City

(Peter Wilson writes).

The 20-year-old Wales

international took his

career tally to 18,

scored for Forest and

on loan at Lincoln City,

when side-footing in 18

minutes from time to

extend his side’s

unbeaten run to nine

games and take them

to within a point of the

play-off positions.

The visitors, who

were on a six-match

unbeaten run, had

gone in front through

Keane Lewis-Potter.

Lewis Grabban

→Continued from page 1

Johnson scored

Nottingham

Forest’s winner

PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE

P W DL F A GD Pts

Man City 17 13 2 240 9 3141

Liverpool 17 12 4 1 4813 3540

Chelsea 17 11 4 23912 2737

Arsenal 18 10 2 627 23 4 32

West Ham 17 8452821 7 28

Man Utd 16 8352624 2 27

Tottenham 14 81 516 17 -1 25

Wolverhampton 17 73713 14 -1 24

Leicester 16 64627 27 0 22

Aston Villa 17 71 92325 -2 22

Crystal Palace 17 4852424 0 20

Brentford 16 55621 22 -1 20

Brighton 16 48414 17 -3 20

Everton 17 54821 29 -8 19

Southampton 17 38616 26 -10 17

Leeds 18 37818 36 -18 16

Watford 16 411121 31 -10 13

Burnley 15 1 8614 21 -7 11

Newcastle 17 1 7918 37 -19 10

Norwich 17 2 4 11 8 34 -26 10