Arsenal will be under considerable pressure off the pitch when they visit Leeds this Sunday following a bad run of results. However, odds are the Gunners will also face pressure on the pitch due to how Marcelo Bielsa sets up his team.
"I’ve been following Marcelo for many years," Arteta told Evening Standard. "We have some friends in common, some players that they've been really attached to him over their careers.
"I have a lot of information on how he works; how he makes his teams play. You know when you face one of Marcelo’s teams that is going to be so intense, so difficult, and you have to be really, really prepared to face that type of opponent.
"We experienced it in January. We had two really different halves, the first-half where it was a shock for our players, just to live that experience against them, and the second-half where we were much better and we ended up winning again.”
The Gunners were under some serious pressure in early January and could consider themselves massively lucky to escape with a 0-0 draw after the first 45 minutes. They mostly had Patrick Bamford's wastefulness and Emi Martinez's heroics to thank for that.
Leeds have shown so far they are no pushovers in the league, narrowly losing to Liverpool on the opening day, drawing vs Man City and smashing Aston Villa to pieces.
However, their two recent heavy losses (to Leicester and Crystal Palace) suggest there's a chink in Bielsa's armour. Hopefully, we'll be well-equipped to capitalize on that weakness.
