It was Luke Ayling who spoke to the media following Leeds' 2-0 loss to Nottingham Forest at the City ground which saw the club's lead at the top of the Championship disappear.
The Whites looked like falling apart and Ayling spoke to the media after the game, looking crestfallen but promising the team would keep fighting. The following game saw them stop the rot as they drew against Brentford, before a long winning run which put them back in the driving seat for promotion, which they ended up securing comfortably.
Leeds suffered another very painful defeat on Tuesday night, as Manchester City ran up a score of 7-0 in a game that felt like it could have been even more emphatic for Pep Guardiola's team.
Again, Ayling has spoken to the media in light of this defeat, promising that the squad would respond and that he would 'lead the way in' in his role as Vice-Captain.
"I’ll lead the way in that. We’ll get back tomorrow and try and get the boys in some kind of spirits and put an arm around those that need an arm around," Ayling told talkSPORT the day after the game.
"The boys here know what it’s about. We’re playing [Premier League] football and if we don’t turn up those things happen [losing in the manner they did against City]."
Ayling said that the side were pleased that they would have an opportunity to put in a performance that shows they're much better than they showed against City, with their next game coming so quickly after.
"It won’t take much for me to get everybody up and going and it’s exciting that we get to put it right on Saturday against a team like Arsenal and hopefully we can do that."
The full back also spoke a little about what had gone wrong for the team this season, as it has been a far-cry from what they were able to achieve in their first season back in the Premier League, where they finished ninth in the table.
"This year we never got off to a good start and we’ve had a lot of injuries. We’re going to have to keep grinding out results, get a few players back and try and kick on from there."
