Gray's frequent battles with injury started, and he missed more than half of the 1970–71 season, during which Leeds again snatched League championship defeat from the jaws of victory but won the Fairs Cup for the second time against Juventus. He found devastating form again for part of the 1971–72 season in which he was part of the team that destroyed Manchester United and Southampton consecutively at Elland Road, by scorelines of 5–1 and 7–0; the match footage of both games would become iconic. Later in the same season he featured in the team which won the 1972 FA Cup Final against Arsenal and featured again in the following cup final which Leeds surprisingly lost to Sunderland. He missed the controversial 1973 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final defeat to A.C. Milan, and missed most of the season in 1973–74 when Leeds won the League title again thanks to more injury woes. These injuries had become so frequent that when Brian Clough succeeded Don Revie at Leeds United, he began his first team meeting by stating that if Eddie Gray had been a horse, he would have been shot long ago.