The American coach felt his side deserved all three points (Picture: LUTV / YouTube)
Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch believes his side dominated Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Premier League leaders Arsenal and felt the hosts were once again on the wrong end of refereeing decisions.
The Gunners took the lead at Elland Road through Bukayo Saka but were forced to soak up an enormous amount of pressure, with Leeds laying siege to the north Londoners’ goal at times.
Patrick Bamford had the chance to level the scores from the penalty spot but dragged his effort wide, while Leeds also had a second late penalty overturned – with Gabriel Magalhaes’ red card also rescinded.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said Leeds had given Arsenal – who are now four points clear at the top of the table – their toughest test and Marsch felt his side deserved all three points.
Speaking after the match, the American coach said: ‘A really good performance from us. Discipline, concentration over the entire match even with the late start and everything that was strange on the day.
‘A performance that showed when we play the way that we want to play, we can be very good. Very good. So that’s the best team in the league right now, and today we were better. We were better.
Leeds spurned a host of chances to score against Arsenal (Picture: Getty)
‘We’re making it hard on ourselves by not capitalising on moments when we’re on top of games. We should be up in this match, even in the second half we could score four or five goals and we would walk out of here feeling like it was the perfect match.’
He echoed that message in his post-match press conference, continuing: ‘We’ve had a number of games where we’ve been on top of things, been the better team and we don’t find ways to get the goals that we deserve in those moments.
‘And then it keeps the opponent around or gives them the chance to find a goal or to find the lead, which makes the game and the sport feel very cruel.
‘We pushed the tempo so high in the first half that it was a lot for them to handle after travel and everything. Yeah, I mean, we were better.
‘We were better on the day, but we’re walking away with nothing. So again, we’ve got to find ways to take the good things and have it add up to results.’
On the late VAR drama surrounding Gabriel, Marsch was asked if he had been given an explanation and replied: ‘I have no idea, I haven’t really been able to figure out who was given the red, it was too far away from me.
‘Some of these decisions and, I mean, even the fact that for me, the penalty should have been called right away. It was clear but yeah, we’re on the wrong end of a lot of these right now, but I’m not going to cover too much referees.’
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‘We could have scored four or five goals!’