Arsenal roar back to beat Leeds 2-1 as Calafiori and Guimarães net Emirates firsts

Riccardo Calafiori and Bruno Guimarães scored their first goals at the Emirates Stadium as defending champion Arsenal recovered to beat Leeds 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.

It was the perfect way for Arsenal to celebrate coach Mikel Arteta signing a contract extension this week and bounce back from a hefty defeat at Brighton before the extended three-week break for internationals .

Arsenal moved level on points with Manchester City at the top of the Premier League ahead of a tricky trip to Liverpool for City on Sunday, in its first match since being found guilty of large-scale financial wrongdoing in the biggest scandal in Premier League history. City is appealing.

It was a first defeat for Leeds, which was hoping to leapfrog Arsenal into second — courtesy of a better goal difference — with a win.

The visitors frustrated Arsenal for large swathes of the match, defending well and looking dangerous on the counterattack.

Leeds scored in the 55th minute. Gabriel Gudmundsson rolled the ball across the area and it went past the flailing hand of a sprawling David Raya and through to James Justin, who blasted it into the roof of the net.

That seemed to spark Arsenal into life and it equalized just seven minutes later as Ben White headed a cross back to Calafiori, who bundled in from close range.

It was a sixth Arsenal goal for Calafiori, who joined the club in 2024, but all the defender’s previous goals had come away from home.

Arteta made a triple change moments later, bringing on Guimarães, Victor Gyokeres and Jurrien Timber and the comeback was complete in the 70th minute with a lovely team goal.

A free kick was taken quickly and it was flicked between a number of players before Declan Rice teed up Guimarães to drive into the bottom left corner from outside the area.

It was the Brazil midfielder’s second goal for Arsenal — having scored against Sunderland last month — after joining from Newcastle in the offseason, and he celebrated by diving into the crowd.

Manchester United was playing Tottenham later after four other Premier League matches.

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