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Oliver Jones

Mikel Arteta highlights Leeds United weaknesses to Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper ahead of clash

Mikel Arteta has told Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper how to break down Leeds United after his Arsenal side put four past the Whites at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Spaniard's Gunners went 1-0 up after Whites defender Luke Ayling clipped Gabriel Jesus in the penalty area, leading to the Brazilian firing past Illan Meslier from the spot.

Two minutes after halftime, their lead was doubled when former Leeds right-back Ben White's shot came off the underside of the crossbar and went in from close range at the back post thanks to a great cross by Gabriel Martinelli.

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Eight minutes later, Jesus found his second of the match, another from close range with the provider being Leandro Trossard whose pass back across the face of goal found the striker six yards out for a tap-in.

Rasmus Kristensen's late consolation provided some respite for Whites fans in North London but that would be swept away by Granit Xhaka's 83rd-minute header that buried all hope of a comeback.

Next week is arguably the biggest of the season for Gracia and his men, and they'll no doubt be quick to put this result behind them as they face Forest on Tuesday night.

But before then, Gunners boss Arteta seems to have highlighted some of Leeds' key weaknesses that they exploited in the second half in order to regain control of the match early on after the break.

"Well a few things that we had to improve," Arteta said in his post-match press conference. "The way they set up they were really man marking our attacking midfielders.

"They were playing a back six, they were playing four really quick players, they caught us on transition and we started to lose the ball in areas that you can’t do against teams that want to defend like that.

"We improved that a lot, we explored other spaces and started to change the positions of a few players, and were more fluent. Then we went attacking in the box with more numbers and good positions and we looked a threat."

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