Leeds United haven’t beaten Arsenal for over two decades, a miserable run that makes it easy to forget how competitive this fixture once was.

These are two of English football’s grand old clubs, with a shared history that includes some unforgettable clashes and a fair deal of bad blood.

Ask supporters of a certain vintage and they’ll tell you all about Don Revie’s Leeds, Bertie Mee’s Arsenal and the battles between two of the country’s great sides. The rivalry was especially fierce around the turn of the 1970s, when both were competing for the biggest honours.

Leeds’ greatest moments against Arsenal came at Wembley. Terry Cooper scored the winner in the 1968 League Cup final, before Allan Clarke’s iconic diving header settled the 1972 FA Cup final. Remarkably, those remain Leeds’ only triumphs in the two major domestic cups.

The clubs’ fortunes fluctuated in the years that followed, but they became closely connected again in the 1990s. George Graham, a two-time league champion with Arsenal, took over at Leeds and set about making them solid, organised and thoroughly dull. It proved an important first step towards their late-1990s resurgence.

Arsene Wenger was doing something more spectacular at Highbury, of course. But for all Frenchman’s success, there was one opponent that seemed to cause him a disproportionate amount of grief – Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s title-wrecking winner at Elland Road in May 1999 one such example that still stings.

Leeds’ knack for rattling Arsenal peaked in May 2003. Harry Kewell scored one of the finest goals Highbury ever witnessed, Mark Viduka struck a late winner and the visitors claimed a famous 3-2 victory. Leeds stayed up, Arsenal surrendered the title to Manchester United.

That was Leeds’ seventh victory over Arsenal in the Premier League era. They’d also knocked them out of the FA Cup at Highbury in 1997. Arsenal invariably finished above Leeds in the table, but they could never quite work out how to stop them taking points.

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“At that time, Peter [Reid] was great with the boys. He got the spirit together,” former Leeds midfielder Eirik Bakke told us back in 2021.

“I think that’s why we beat Arsenal.

“Away against Arsenal, we always did well. We had won there before. We always had a big rivalry between ourselves and them.

“When they were losing, they were so arrogant. Bad losers. To beat them a few times was one of my highlights.”

Things have changed a bit since the turn of the century when Leeds were perennially a thorn in the side of Wenger’s Gunners.

Twenty-three years on, that victory at Highbury remains Leeds’ last against Arsenal. Their record since makes for grim reading.

Sixteen meetings. Fourteen Arsenal wins. Two draws, one of which came in an FA Cup tie that Arsenal comfortably won in the replay. You’ll struggle to find another fixture quite so one-sided anywhere in English football this century.

Arsenal got their revenge for Leeds’ infamous title-wrecking win in the most brutally emphatic fashion. The following season, Wenger’s side went Invincible while Leeds were relegated, and the Gunners inflicted some serious punishment along the way.

Three meetings, an aggregate score of 13-2, and Thierry Henry unforgettably scoring four in a 5-0 demolition at Highbury.

That season – a high and low point for the two clubs – set the tone for the shape of the fixture in the 21st century.

Leeds couldn’t escape Arsenal even after dropping out of the Premier League. They were paired together four times in the FA Cup during their 16-year absence, and the familiar pattern continued.

They produced some spirited performances, including a particularly impressive showing under Marcelo Bielsa in January 2020, against an Arsenal side with Mikel Arteta newly installed as manager, but never quite enough to pull off an upset.

Bielsa’s Leeds gave Arsenal a proper game in their first season back up, hitting the woodwork three times in a goalless draw at Elland Road. They went unbeaten at home against the ‘big six’ that year and notched a memorable win away to Pep Guardiola’s imperial-era Manchester City.

And Leeds eventually finished just one place and two points behind Arsenal in Arteta’s first full season in charge. Feels a long time ago now.

Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool have all been beaten in the years since. Manchester United joined that list last season, when Leeds ended a 45-year wait for a league victory at Old Trafford.

But Arsenal remain the one nut they can’t crack. Leeds have lost their last eight meetings with Arteta’s side, including 5-0 and 4-0 thrashings last season.

Those results stand out even more given the corner that Leeds turned and how Arsenal’s title-winning campaign was defined by tight, nervy, hard-fought wins. Arteta’s side were regularly pushed by teams considerably weaker than Leeds, yet comfortably swept Farke’s men aside twice. Manchester City, the only other side to complete the double over Leeds, encountered considerably more resistance home and away.

Leeds are having a wonderful time of it. Unbeaten this season, excellent results, a well-run club and a fanbase that’s almost unerringly optimistic. It’s been a long time since there was so little to moan about.

But Arsenal remain unfinished business. Finally beating them would remove the last lingering doubt that Leeds can compete with anyone on their day. Arsenal were beaten 3-0 by Brighton before the extended break. If there’s ever a good time to catch them, perhaps this is it.

That would leave winning at Wembley as the last great psychological hurdle.

“United are back” is a popular refrain at Elland Road these days. It’ll certainly feel that way if they’re p*ssing on Arsenal’s chips again, just like they used to.

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