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Leeds 0-4 Arsenal
Thierry Henry continued his red-hot scoring streak to give Arsenal a half-time lead against Leeds at Elland Road. The French striker tucked home Ray Parlour's cross after 21 minutes to register his sixth goal in successive matches and his 20th of a prolific season. Arsenal should have had more than just the one goal to show for their first-half domination and Nigel Martyn touched an Emmanuel Petit shot on to a post, while Frederik Ljungberg and Dennis Bergkamp wasted great opportunities. Ian Harte added to Leeds' woes just before the interval when he was dismissed for kicking Bergkamp. Before kick-off the Arsenal players and manager Arsene Wenger had presented bouquets of flowers to their Leeds counterparts, which were placed with the other tributes outside. Once the game started, Silvinho quickly entered referee Steve Dunn's book for cutting down Lee Bowyer before Leeds mustered the first threat on goal. Patrick Vieira's attempted clearance from Stephen McPhail's free-kick rebounded off Parlour and went just past the upright for a corner. McPhail floated the corner over to Eirik Bakke at the back post and the Norwegian headed narrowly wide. Leeds should have taken the lead in the 15th minute after a marvellous run by Harry Kewell. The Aussie ace weaved his way past three Arsenal players, but with only David Seaman to beat he hesitated instead of shooting and when he eventually squared the ball to Alan Smith, the youngster scooped his shot well over the bar. Three minutes later Martyn denied the Gunners the lead with a great save from Petit. Henry's right-wing cross was deflected to Petit 15 yards out who unleashed a drive which Martyn managed to touch on to his right-hand post. However Martyn was powerless to prevent Arsenal opening the scoring in the 21st minute. Bergkamp won the ball and released Parlour down the right, whose cross was swept home right-footed by Henry, who also netted in the Gunners' 2-0 win over Leeds at Highbury in December. Wenger was becoming increasingly unhappy with some of Dunn's decisions and he remonstrated with the fourth official after Bergkamp was harshly booked for a foul on Bakke, who seconds earlier had escaped punishment for a rough challenge on Petit. Arsenal spurned two great opportunities to double their advantage within a minute. First, Jonathan Woodgate slipped to let in Parlour and he centred for Ljungberg, who shot weakly straight at Martyn. Then Bergkamp was guilty of an even worse miss when Lee Dixon planted the ball on his head from a great right-wing cross only for the Dutchman to miss the target from inside the six-yard box. Leeds' hopes of a comeback became even more remote when Harte stupidly got himself sent off two minutes before half-time for kicking Bergkamp. Harte took exception after Bergkamp ran into him and bundled him over and the full-back retaliated by booting the striker in the back as he lay on the ground.
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