Arsenal emerges victorious in a game that was truly a tale of two halves.
The first half belonged to Leeds United, no point denying that. They were the best side and truth be told, they should have been ahead at half time.
Arsenal did have the odd chance for sure, there was an occasional run from the likes of Granit Xhaka and Nicolas Pepe but with no end product.
At the other end, it was only poor finishing, fine saves from Martinez and poor final touches that denied the visitors a half time lead.
There were the characteristic mistakes we saw prior to Mikel Arteta taking charge, poor passes, hesitant playing out from the back and consistently losing the ball in the middle of the pitch.
Leeds were far more fluent with the ball, they looked and played as if they were the hungrier side – and it has to be said, this was a very average first-half performance from Arsenal.
It was ponderous and lacklustre, there was the same old poor Xhaka tackling, Lacazette failing to hold the ball up, Ozil going missing and so on.
Leeds had 64% possession and 15 shots on target, those stats tell you all you need to know about how this first half went.
One could only hope that Arteta would work some magic in the interval.
The second half started off better. Arsenal was far more prominent, they showed more intent and more energy and twice within the first seven minutes Lacazette came close. Even Guendouzi had a pop at the goal.
One thing that did not change within the first ten minutes was the reckless tackling from Xhaka, how he was not booked up to this stage I do not know.
The opening goal came for Arsenal on the 54th minute courtesy of Reiss Nelson. Pepe went on a beautiful run, fed Lacazette on the right side of the penalty whose pass across the goal found Nelson. His mis-hit shot found its way into the back of the net and immediately the atmosphere changed in the stadium.
Nelson was subbed about ten minutes later to be replaced by Gabriel Martinelli. The young lad had run himself ragged and was applauded by the bench for his contribution.
Arsenal was the more dominant and should have extended their lead, Leeds did have the odd go at the Arsenal goal but were not anywhere near as dangerous as they were in the first half.
Arsenal ran out 1-0 winners and yes, the second half was an improvement on the first half but this was in no way a good performance.
A couple of players had credible games but most of the usual suspects did no,t and the hope has to be that the first half was nothing more than a blip on the road to resurrection under Mikel Arteta.
I will say this though, the players did respond to whatever Arteta said to them at half time, and that is a huge positive and something we can all definitely take from this game.
Arsenal is away at Bournemouth in the fourth round.