Leeds United man’s nightmarish next test after earning Jesse Marsch ‘best performance’ praise

The right-back had a heart-to-heart with his head coach on Saturday night ahead of the trip to Crystal Palace, which pitted him against the experienced, tricky and rapid Wilfried Zaha.

It has been a challenging start to life in the English top flight for Kristensen, with a number of shaky moments in and out of possession since the campaign began.

But at Selhurst Park he delighted his manager, even if he held some blame for the Palace leveller, in what ended as a 2-1 defeat.

"Very pleased," said Marsch.

"He knew it was a big challenge to play against Zaha. We had a really good discussion [the night before] about a few different things, about his time here and, really committing to developing and committing to the difficulty of what this league is, and believing in himself.

"I thought that was easily his best performance in a Leeds kit, so I'm really happy for him -unlucky on the day that it leads to a loss."

The difficulty of the Premier League is that no sooner have you put in your best showing of the season, against a difficult direct opponent, that you must prepare for another who will prove every bit as nightmarish, if not more so. Sunday brings division leaders Arsenal to Elland Road, with their eight wins from nine top flight outings, five straight wins and a growing belief that they can actually play a part in a title race.

They also boast, in Gabriel Martinelli, a left sided attacker in fine form, the Brazilian having hit the net four times and created two goals for the Gunners so far this season.

Still only 21, Martinelli is providing passes that lead to chances, dribbling past defenders, winning free-kicks and, crucially, supplying end product at a rate that will soon see him surpass last season's goals and assists tallies.

He too is delighting his manager.

“When you see where he is a year ago from when he played against Brentford to where he is today is phenomenal but it is his desire to train hard every day," said Mikel Arteta at the weekend.

“It is a nightmare to play against him and we know we have a real threat up front.”

Whether or not they repeat their Saturday night chat, Kristensen will not need Marsch to tell him that Sunday will require him to set a new bar for performance levels.