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Betting preview: Arsenal need to beat Leeds Utd to stay in hunt for top 6

By on February 11, 2021

Mikel Arteta Arsenal

Arsenal need to get their season back on track with a win when we take on Leeds United at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

After an excellent unbeaten seven-game run that saw us pick-up 17 points from a possible 21, Arsenal came down to earth with a controversial 2-1 defeat at Wolves before losing 1-0 away to Aston Villa last weekend.

Those back-to-back defeats have left Arsenal sitting way down in 11th place in the Premier League table so we cannot afford any more slip-ups if we want to stand a chance of qualifying for Europe next season.

Victory over Leeds United on Sunday is vital if we’re to get ourselves back in the hunt as we currently sit eight points adrift of sixth-placed West Ham and many of the teams above us have at least one game in hand.

A win on Sunday would see Arsenal leapfrog Leeds into the top half of the table and put us within striking distance of Tottenham and Everton so Mikel Arteta will know how important this game is in order to keep our season alive.

However, we’ll be up against an impressive Leeds side who’ve already taken points from the likes of Leicester, Everton, Manchester City and Newcastle this season while they held us to a 0-0 draw at Elland Road in November.

Betting odds

Betting on Arsenal has been tough this season as we’ve regularly dropped points in games we were favourites to win. I’m sure I’m not the only fan to have lost a fair amount backing the Gunners this season. However, chasing losses is named as one of the most common betting mistakes on BettingInstitute so we can’t let our hearts rule our heads.

Arsenal are the 17/20 favourites to win on Sunday with Leeds priced at odds of 3/1. The draw is available at 14/5 and that could tempt some who feel Arsenal will struggle without Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney – who’ve been ruled out of the game this weekend.

However, this is a vitally important match for Arsenal and while Leeds will no doubt give us an extremely difficult time, I’m backing us to edge it. There should be goals as Leeds love to play open football so a 2-1 Arsenal win looks good at odds of 7/1.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could return to the starting eleven after being named on the bench for the last two games and the Gabon hitman will be looking to get himself back among the goals. Auba is currently 7/2 favourite to open the scoring on Sunday, which looks like a solid bet to me.