Leeds United fell into the bottom three on Sunday afternoon after a disastrous first-half showing did the damage in a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Two Eddie Nketiah goals in the opening ten minutes were followed by a Luke Ayling red card on 27 minutes to leave Jesse Marsch's side in a hole they could not get out of.
While ten-man Leeds fared better after the break, they lacked any sustained attacking intent, with Diego Llorente's 66th minutes goal from a corner one of few chances they were able to create.
With Everton winning at Leicester, it means Leeds are now down to 18th place, behind Burnley on goal difference, with just three matches left to play.
Read more: Leeds United player ratings as Meslier and Ayling errors pave the way for Arsenal win
Here is every word from the Leeds head coach's post-match press conference.
A bad defeat, down to poor decision-making and necessary risk-taking would you say in the first half?
Yeah, I'd just say we dug ourselves a massive hole and made a difficult task much, much more difficult. So obviously far from the start that we wanted, but our resolve and our fight when the game was incredibly hard was amazing.
I know there's no rewards that don't come away with points right now for us, especially now that we're actually in the relegation zone. But we have to stay positive, we have to stay strong and we have to forge on. And that's the only way we can operate right now. Even the message after the game was that our focus is fully on Chelsea right now to do whatever we can to recover and prepare ourselves for a big match on Wednesday.
You've lost another key player for the season in Luke Ayling. How disappointed are you with the decision he made to go and make that challenge?
Yeah, it's a little bit ironic considering it's 500 matches from Luke and he's such an experienced player. Just a moment of poor judgment from him, but he's been an incredible part of what we've accomplished here so far since I've been here. I'm disappointed for him and the team, but whatever, that's the situation, we have to accept it and we just have to move forward.
Chelsea are next. Lewis Bate's come in today and impressed in the second half. Has he given you a decision to think he's a man that can something on Wednesday night?
I knew that even going into the match. He's been training really well, he's been playing really well with the 23s. I have no doubts that if we need Lewis at some point here in the next three matches, that he'll be ready to play and that he'll perform like he did this afternoon. As soon as I saw that Klichy had a yellow and we didn't need another lost player in the process then I was 100 per cent ready to put Lewis on the pitch and not surprised at all with his performance.
What is it - are you disappointed with your players today or have you had to swallow that a bit and get more positive?
The reality is that it doesn't matter. Obviously we did ourselves a big disservice by the start we had. A young goalkeeper can make mistakes sometimes and often it's how he responds. I thought that the rest of the match he was quite good. And we're going to need him in the next three matches. We're down between injury and suspensions we're down to not a lot of players. And we need every guy to be ready to give whatever it takes to help us get through this situation. So our back's against the wall, but we've got to be ready and we're ready to fight.
What do you do with the right-back situation that also allows you to have Raphinha where he can actually hurt teams?
Good question. We'll evaluate exactly what we need to do in the next three days, over the next three matches. It does present us with a dilemma. We have Jamie Shackleton to play this position. We can play Raphinha, we can try a centre-back outside at the full-back position. We have some options, but we've got to figure out what's the best scenario to get us through the next three matches.
You've obviously seen heart and character since you've come in, where's the quality coming from to get the points you need?
I had the question this week about a striker. We tried it with Joffy today and we didn't get enough out of that. Part of it was the overall performance, but part of it was just Joffy being a little bit sharper on the day. We've got to find a way to defend better, to be better with the ball, to create more chances. We finally get a set-piece goal, so that's a positive moving forwards. That's our situation right now. And right now it's a lot more about being pragmatic than it is about being pretty. And so the fight and the determination we saw in the second half is what we have to encapsulate to find a way to get some results in these next three matches.
You say you're disappointed for your captain but this is a time for leadership. Aren;t you a little bit disappointed in him? Just wondering what he said to the players at half-time?
Yeah, he apologised, but it's not the time to point fingers. If we start playing the blame game with our team, we're screwed. The only potential we have to fight our way out of this is striking together, being disciplined and believing in what we're doing. We have to again, continue to push ourselves to defend better and attack better in all phases of the game to be better, but we've got to do whatever it takes right now to stick together and fight for points.
What's his role for the rest of the season? Will he be there?
Yeah, absolutely. It's no different from what Adam Forshaw's been providing us, or Patrick Bamford or guys that haven't been around the roster on a matchday. Even Liam Cooper was here, pushing the guys today. That's what we need right now. We need everybody all in.
How can you put the two things today? The first half an hour was just crazy, wasn't it? And yet the spirit you showed in the last 20 minutes - how can you correlate the two?
As I'm watching the game I'm thinking about how to do exactly that. How to bring an idea of the way we want to play football in this moment with the spirit and the character of the group And right now, I've got to figure out what that means for formation, player choices, everything, match plans, so that we can give ourselves the best chance to fight for every single point that we have left.
Does the last 20 minutes give you hope and belief in the dressing room that you can survive?
The disappointment in the dressing room right now is massive because we know that we let ourselves down by the way we started. But I have to find a way to have to be real with them, but positive and we have to again recover and go again. And not feel sorry for ourselves. And that's the only way that I think about how to handle tough moments.
You mentioned sticking together - what sort of things were said at half-time?
I said that we needed to stay disciplined. And that we couldn't, after losing Luke, that we couldn't lose any other players for the remaining games. That we had to treat the match like it was 0-0. That we had to defend for our lives and find a way to be lethal on a couple of counters and maybe get a set piece goal, Or take a foul or find a way where we can be dangerous on a set piece. We get a goal and then I said maybe we can push and make the game interesting. It's not over but even the sub I made at half, the sub I made in the second half, this was about making sure that we weren't losing any more bodies for the upcoming matches.
How do you take that confidence going forward?
That's the million-dollar question. We have to take the positives and we have to take the confidence but we have to also understand what kind of things can absolutely destroy our chances. And so the way we start the match and the mistakes we make, that's the way to dig ourselves a bigger hole and we've got to find a way to dig ourselves out.
A crucial time of the season for planning - how would you plan for next season?
I don't have time to plan for next season right now. I said this week, I have a singular focus on the next four games and I can say that right now it's about the next three games.
Do you believe that the team are going to get out of this?
Yeah, I do. I do believe that. And I knew going into these three matches against City again, Arsenal, against Chelsea, that picking up points was going to be incredibly difficult. I knew that we still could manage to find some points. Right now, if we beat Chelsea I would walk away from the three matches and go if you asked me before three points from the three matches I would say ok, that's ok. That'll help us. So right now obviously we failed the first two tests and we have another massive test Wednesday night against a team that has a little more rest than us and we've just got to turn around, find a way to stay strong, put a group on the pitch that's going to do whatever it takes like they did in the second half and find a way to get our points. That's the only focus right now.
