Bukayo Saka keeps Arsenal top as Leeds’ Bamford misses penalty

The sight of Arsenal devoting much of the second half to taking every opportunity to waste as much time as possible emphasises precisely how hard Mikel Arteta’s side had to work to retain their place at the top of the Premier League.

A compelling, incident-packed game dominated by an amalgam of technology and controversy was settled by a gorgeous goal from Bukayo Saka but also saw Leeds’ Patrick Bamford have a goal disallowed and miss a penalty while Arsenal’s Gabriel Magalhães had a late red card overturned following a clash with Jesse Marsch’s centre-forward.

The briefest of power cuts at Elland Road coincided with the originally scheduled 2pm kickoff and provoked all sorts of mayhem. So much so that, after only 23 seconds, play was halted and the teams taken off the pitch after it emerged that the referee, Chris Kavanagh, and his officials had a problem with their headsets.

It seems they had lost contact with their VAR and goalline technology feeds. A momentary flickering on and off of the lights in West Yorkshire had far-reaching repercussions with the match not re-starting for another 39 minutes. Happily it was worth the wait.

Arsenal emerged surprisingly ring-rusty and had reason for relief when, straight from the resumption, Luis Sinisterra sent a shot swerving inches wide of an upright. Presumably heeding this warning, Arteta’s side subsequently began to rediscover their familiar pass and move groove and Rasmus Kristensen was required to make an important block to prevent Gabriel Martinelli connecting with a volleyed chance conjured by Ben White’s cross.

Leeds are not easily daunted though and their willingness to press their opponents, hard and daringly high up the pitch on the counterattack not only succeeded