Patrice Evra explains why Marcelo Bielsa will be delighted with one Leeds player

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Patrice Evra has told Sky Sports that Marcelo Bielsa will be delighted with Leeds United defender Gjanni Alioski after the left-back hit the deck following a headbutt from Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe during Sunday’s 0-0 draw.

Sunday saw the two sides play out an exciting game, in which Leeds were arguably the better side throughout. The Whites hit the woodwork three times in the second half, with Patrick Bamford, Raphinha and Rodrigo all inches away from scoring.

The turning point in the match came in the form of a red card shown to Pepe – with VAR replays showing the Ivory Coast winger to have headbutted Macedonian star Alioski after the duo had been guilty of a scuffle beforehand.

While Evra feels Pepe’s actions were unforgivable, he claimed that Bielsa will be delighted with Alioski who theatrically fell to the floor – prompting VAR to look at the incident. Had he not fallen, it is up for debate whether Pepe would have been sent off.

“I’m disappointed [in him],” Evra said. “You can see early on he was already dealing with Alioski. But Pepe is not happy and it’s a little bit silly. He should apologise to his team-mates as Arsenal had a plan and everything changed after that.

“Alioski deserved an Oscar because he played it so well. If I was Leeds’ coach, I would be so happy with him. He looked like he broke his nose but he didn’t have anything wrong with him. Really, really silly from Pepe.”

TBR’s view – Not a red for Alioski stands up

The initial reaction when headbutted is to retaliate, that is in human nature. That suggests that perhaps Alioski scuffling with Pepe was intentional in order to wind the Arsenal winger up – but boy, did Pepe take the bait.

If Alioski stands up to Pepe after the headbutt, would Pepe have seen red like he rightly deserved? Perhaps not. £2million signing (YEP) Alioski has to go down in the current climate to show VAR and the referee that a red card is the right decision.

Alioski is wrong to go down, but he needs to do so to get Pepe sent off.