By Tony Attwood
Arsenal have confirmed that the previous discussions about expanding part of the Ems Stadium in order to accommodate bigger crowds have been set aside.
It has been suggested that the manager raised concerns about the distraction this caused to players and the disruption of the team’s focus. Season ticket holders were also pretty miffed at the prospect of being kicked out of their seats for quite a while during construction. So the stadium’s capacity will stay at 60,704.
It is thought that further exploration will be given to showing more Arsenal home games live on TV, when the matches themselves are not being shown by whoever holds the licence for a set number of live games each season. This is obviously a complex deal, but with every game sold out there is pressure on Arsenal to come up with some sort of plan via Arsenal TV to allow more people to see the games unless the duopoly of satellite channels can sort something out.
Indeed, the irony of the situation has not escaped Arsenal, where every game is sold out in the stadium; every game can be seen live on TV in many countries around the world, but in England those fans who are unable to get to the ground or have not been able to get a ticket are in effect shut out.
Part of the worry comes from the effect that not being able to get to the ground has on fans who could develop the habit of going to the Arsenal regularly in younger life, but then later, when they might be able to get a ticket, are simply out of habit or even the idea of going to see a game live has since passed them by.
Meanwhile – and it seems like forever since it last happened – we are now within sight of an actual match again. 1230 on Saturday at home to Leeds. In the UK, it is on TNT, and I imagine it will also be on BBC Radio 5, although I can’t confirm that as they don’t seem to announce it very early.
Obviously we are still very early in the proper football season, and Leeds have only played two away games thus far. They had the curious experience of playing Nottingham Forest twice at the very start of the season, once in the League and once in the League Cup. But staying just with the league, they won away on 22 August and then drew with Brighton and Hove away 1-1.
But these are, of course, measurements over just a couple of games, so let’s turn back to earlier times, and here we find something rather special: the very last time Leeds beat Arsenal was with a 2-3 away win on 4 May 2003. In the subsequent six games, Arsenal have won five and drawn one.
In the last eight games, seven of which have been in the league, Arsenal have won the lot, with an accumulated score of 26 goals sfor Arsenal and five for Leeds. Which seems to suggest that Arsenal might just squeak by. Especially since in the last three games (all in the league) Arsenal have scored 13 and conceded one.
However, it does look as if Leeds have sharpened themselves up a bit this season, as the league table shows
| Club | P | w | d | l | f | a | gd | pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
5
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
13
|
5
|
8
|
15
|
|
|
|
5
|
4
|
0
|
1
|
8
|
4
|
4
|
12
|
|
|
|
5
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
16
|
5
|
11
|
10
|
|
|
|
5
|
2
|
3
|
0
|
10
|
4
|
6
|
9
|
|
|
|
5
|
2
|
3
|
0
|
7
|
3
|
4
|
9
|
So we have a contradiction with the games this season
| Date | Match | Result | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Aug 2026 | Nottingham Forest v Leeds United | W | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 25 Aug 2026 | Nottingham Forest v Leeds United | W | 0-2 | League Cup |
| 30 Aug 2026 | Leeds United v Brentford | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 05 Sep 2026 | Brighton and Hove Albion v Leeds United | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 09 Sep 2026 | Chelsea v Leeds United | L | 6-3 | League Cup |
| 14 Sep 2026 | Leeds United v Newcastle United | W | 4-1 | Premier League |
| 20 Sep 2026 | Leeds United v Crystal Palace | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
and the fact that
| 01 Nov 2003 | Leeds United v Arsenal | L | 1-4 | Premier League |
| 04 Jan 2004 | Leeds United v Arsenal | L | 1-4 | FA Cup |
| 16 Apr 2004 | Arsenal v Leeds United | L | 5-0 | Premier League |
| 08 Jan 2011 | Arsenal v Leeds United | D | 1-1 | FA Cup |
| 19 Jan 2011 | Leeds United v Arsenal | L | 1-3 | FA Cup |
| 09 Jan 2012 | Arsenal v Leeds United | L | 1-0 | FA Cup |
| 06 Jan 2020 | Arsenal v Leeds United | L | 1-0 | FA Cup |
| 22 Nov 2020 | Leeds United v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 14 Feb 2021 | Arsenal v Leeds United | L | 4-2 | Premier League |
| 26 Oct 2021 | Arsenal v Leeds United | L | 2-0 | League Cup |
| 18 Dec 2021 | Leeds United v Arsenal | L | 1-4 | Premier League |
| 08 May 2022 | Arsenal v Leeds United | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 16 Oct 2022 | Leeds United v Arsenal | L | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 01 Apr 2023 | Arsenal v Leeds United | L | 4-1 | Premier League |
| 23 Aug 2025 | Arsenal v Leeds United | L | 5-0 | Premier League |
| 31 Jan 2026 | Leeds United v Arsenal | L | 0-4 | Premier League |
In the last 16 meetings between the two sides (it may be one more or one less – I was counting on the computer screen and may have drifted off partway down), they haven’t won a match. And have conceded 13 goals in the last three.
So how did Leeds get themselves into this position? Well, the answer comes down to one man, Mr Bonkers. That may not be his right name, but I think that will do for now. And his approach to reality is interesting because it is just like the approach to reality recently adopted by Tottenham Hotspur.
It starts with ludicrous borrowings of money that can never be paid back unless a) the club does very well and b) some nutter comes along and offers to buy the money with vast amounts of cash and in so doing, also pays off all the debts. At the same time this nutter believes that if only he had been in charge, the club would have not only qualified for the Champions League but also won it and so would have made the club look wonderful, and could then have been sold to some rich idiot who goes around saying, “How hard can it be).
