Fredi Ljungberg and Olivier Dacourt in battle (Mike Hewitt/Allsport)

While Arsene Wenger's men confirmed officially their candidature for next season's European Champions League, defeat deepened concern for Leeds and the manager that only winning the prize trophy itself might guarantee their own future involvement.

O'Leary was adamant his own pursuit of pleasure at the club he served for 20 years had to be sacrificed on the altar of this Tuesday's Champions League return in Valencia.

Pure blarney. The promised wholesale rest day for as many as possible of his fatigued young troops simply did not transpire.

Danny Mills was replaced with Gary Kelly, and Alan Smith was rested for Robbie Keane. Otherwise it was very much the team hoping to capitalise in Spain on the goalless semi-final first leg with Valencia at Elland Road.

The combative David Batty was not available in any event through suspension. With his volatile temper it might have been just as well.

But perhaps O'Leary might consider it would have been more sensible to have stuck by the much healthier option of conserving energies.

O'Leary said: 'I hope the FA will look into two incidents which occurred during this game. I hope they see things when they are played back to them on video.'

Certainly, this was a bruising, always fractious confrontation which threatened several times to explode out of the control of referee Peter Jones.

Seven yellow cards - edged 4-3 by Arsenal - could so easily have been doubled at least with a couple of reds thrown in for good measure had a flaying elbow by Martin Keown on Mark Viduka been clearly observed and a stamp in attempted, angry retribution by the understandably outraged Aussie.

A further suspicion of an elbowing offence by Keown on Lee Bowyer was not nearly so clear-cut.

But this Leeds side neither succumb to intimidation nor surrender meekly to defeat, even when confronted by physical excess and a seemingly insurmountable two-goal deficit.

An encouraging omen, perhaps, for O'Leary, even though he was forced to endure a barrage of obscene taunts from a large chunk of those who once heaped adoration upon him.

An exquisite example of how potent Arsenal can be was provided by their opening goal after 17 minutes. Leeds were sliced wide open by the cheekiest touch of Thierry Henry. His deft pass bemused Rio Ferdinand and Freddie Ljungberg side-stepped the challenge of Nigel Martyn to steer the ball into an empty net.

Arsenal continued to produce flowing football sandwiched between the flaying boots and angry exchanges.

Keown should have done better with the glancing header he applied to a Robert Pires free-kick in the 26th minute.

And on the stroke of half-time Henry worked another little bit of magic in pulling the ball back for Lee Dixon, whose full-blooded close-range volley was fabulously denied by a onehanded save from Martyn.

Leeds lost Keane following a heavy challenge by Tony Adams. No worries there for O'Leary because the £12million striker is not available for the European game.

Arsenal might have been forgiven for believing that victory in their final game of the season at Highbury was assured after Patrick Vieira put in Sylvain Wiltord to register a second goal with a precise finish across Martyn in the 56th minute.

Not so, however. Arsenal, and David Seaman in particular, were to be embarrassed by a 58th-minute Ian Harte free-kick that arced over the defensive wall, leaving the current England goalkeeper a bemused bystander.

The Leeds dead-ball specialist came within a fraction of repeating the damage 10 minutes later with an angled free-kick that bounced through the Arsenal rearguard and struck a post before the danger was cleared.

Arsenal manager Wenger admitted his players allowed themselves to become unnerved, leading to the unseemly altercations.

He said: 'It was a tough game. They have a very physical player up front who protects the ball well and maybe Martin Keown got a bit nervous and reacted.

'But we know now that we will finish in the top three of the Premiership which gives us guaranteed Champions League football next season.

'It was a fully committed game because Leeds, with two home games remaining, wanted to secure at least a point to maintain their European position for next season.'