Illan Meslier suffered a severe decline at Leeds but could be perfect for Arsenal backup role

Illan Meslier has already made a debut at Arsenal.

In January 2020, aged 19, he made his first senior appearance for Leeds United in the Emirates Stadium.

While the hosts would eventually make their Premier League advantage pay with a 1-0 home win against then Championship opposition, that FA Cup third-round tie is best remembered as the first time Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds side went toe-to-toe with a top-flight outfit. Meslier, Leeds’s second-choice goalkeeper at the time and only on loan from French club Lorient, was a virtually unknown quantity. His performance in north London was a pleasant surprise to the travelling supporters.

The teenager stroked the ball around with confidence. He clipped passes from his area to the sidelines with accuracy and never looked overawed by the occasion or the 58,000-plus crowd, despite it being his first game at senior level in English football.

Two hundred and fourteen matches later, Meslier is on his way back to Arsenal, but not in the role anyone would have expected if you had asked them at his Leeds peak in 2021. Back then, tying him down to a five-year contract at Elland Road was seen as a major coup.

Only four goalkeepers had more Premier League clean sheets in that 2020-21 season than Meslier’s 11. He was 21 then, considered one of Europe’s best young goalkeepers and a future France No 1.

It was so rare to have someone with so much experience at such a young age. He was confident, played out from the back with his feet, took risks and, crucially, pulled off immense stops.

It felt like Leeds had resolved their goalkeeping future, nailing down someone who would fetch a transfer fee in the tens of millions if it ever came to selling him. And yet, here we are, at the end of that five-year contract, with him released from last season’s role as the club’s third-choice ’keeper.

Meslier was one of the many victims caught in the wreckage of Leeds’ 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.

Across the combined impact of Bielsa’s project exploding and the subsequent failures in trying to replace him as head coach, the Frenchman’s confidence was reduced to rubble.

In 2021-22, he shipped a league-high 79 goals (17 more than the next highest total) in 38 games. He was top of the concession chart in 2022-23, too, beaten 67 times (10 clear of second place) in 34 games as Leeds were relegated.

He did not have anything like the protection from his defenders as he did in 2020-21 in those campaigns, but Meslier was also failing to stop goals that the data expected him to. The whole Leeds team were underperforming, but when their back line was breached, Meslier offered little resistance.

He, like many in that relegated squad, needed rebuilding, but stuck around during Leeds’ two years back in the Championship. He was fine under new manager Daniel Farke in 2023-24, as the club chased promotion all season, only to lose in the play-off final.

The situation did, however, come to a head the following season.

Leeds were the dominant force in the second tier, yet everyone could see Meslier was the weak link. His errors were turning wins into draws and draws into defeats.

One of the few criticisms of Farke in that 100-point, title-winning campaign was how long it took him to drop Meslier. He cannot be faulted for supporting his goalkeeper, but enough was enough in the April, after two errors against Swansea City. Karl Darlow saw Leeds over the line in the final seven matches.

Meslier has not been seen since.

It was staggering to see him remain at the club after last summer’s transfer window. He was in the final year of his contract and had little prospect of playing at all, but decided to stay as third choice.

While he had no say in being demoted to third-in-line by Farke, it seems Meslier is actively choosing that same role in this move to Arsenal. He’s a 26-year-old free agent with the freedom to choose where he wants to rebuild himself, and yet is opting, in all likelihood, to sit in the stands for however many more years, maybe playing the odd cup match here and there if he’s lucky.

Based on his performances at his peak, there should be no doubt that Meslier has the ability to be a top-level goalkeeper, and it may have simply been a matter of time, but he seems to be writing off the rest of his twenties.

It’s not unusual to see a veteran goalkeeper in their mid-to-late thirties looking for a comfortable third-string posting somewhere, but Meslier still has the time for a career relaunch. Does he still have the appetite to play regularly at the top level, though?

Perhaps he is backing himself to usurp starter David Raya and No 2 Kepa Arrizabalaga, but that seems a wildly optimistic stretch. In the unlikely event Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is without his two premier goalkeepers at the same time, Meslier will surely be one of the better third-choice options in the league.

If he is not there to play much, Arsenal are at least recruiting a wonderful character.

Multiple sources, who spoke to The Athletic on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, have talked up the positive impact Meslier continued to have behind the scenes at Leeds. At no stage was he described as a disruptive presence, despite his sharp decline in playing time and status. He was a valued part of the goalkeeping department and a popular team-mate in the dressing room.

Whatever his on-pitch contributions end up being, this might be the most important part of his role at Arsenal.

In that sense, and despite his relatively young age for a third-choice ’keeper, could Meslier be perfectly designed for it?