Danny Welbeck and Rob Holding were on the scoresheet as a strong Arsenal under-23 side beat Chelsea 4-1 at London Colney.
As well as the aforementioned goalscorers the likes of Emi Martinez, Carl Jenkinson, the Jeff and Ainsley Maitland-Niles were all given run outs by Steve Gatting. January signing Cohen Bramall also featured.
The Gunners, watched at close quarters by the likes of Arsene Wenger, Freddie Ljungberg and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, did well to stymy Chelsea’s bright start before going up through the gears.
Holding, a calm presence in defence, headed home a well-worked corner to break the deadlock before Donyell Malen’s low drive doubled the lead.
Reiss Nelson’s neat backheel made it three after the break and Welbeck rounded off the scoring for the Gunners from the penalty spot. The Blues’ consolation was scored by Ike Ugbo.
The win sees the Gunners climb level on 25 points with Chelsea in the Premier League 2 table.
Is Wenger preparing the Ox to be our manager next season?
Ox is the new Patrick Vieira so yeah, probably will manage Arsenal one day.
Strong team and always good to beat the C***s.
Good warm up for Welbeast. Can’t wait to see him in the starting lineup. A front trio of Welbeck – Perez – Welbeast ll b massive. A lot of energy in there.
Glad Donyell got on the scoresheet as well.
Chelshit ll drop some points this weekend again.
COYG, let’s finish the season on a high note.
Welbeast – Perez – Sanchez
Good match. Willock impressed as did Mallen. Two men of the match. Jeff played awesome in the box-to-box roll instead of No. 10. Bramall looked like he has real potential and most guys played pretty well. Reiss Nelson also showed that he’s super talented.
Fantastic buy Holding. So composed and assured. Still needs a bit more experience but a real talent.
Wenger got himself a bargain considering all the hype with the media and their prescription of choice Stones at City.
Welbeck is an excellent buy too. Always felt he has a great combination of pace and physical strength but as an English player he is also surprisingly adept technically. If he can add an unforgiving nature in front of goal and become more efficient, he can be lethal.
Freddie Ljungberg. Forget how much I loved this player.
Welbz, our new penalty specialist?
We need one.
Nice one. The run out will do Welbz good.
What do you make of the Bellerin story in the Guardian?. Just signed a new deal in November & not a quote in site.
So why does it still worry me ?
because of the 0 quotes i think.
when something is on the down low its usually because theres a little truth to it in arsenals case. they keep tight lipped 90% of the time.
However it could also be false so hasnt gotten any traction with other media.
either way im not worried. Bellerin is loving life at Arsenal. living in london. and has stated it many times before.
Bellerin’s gone on record recently saying he has no interest in returning to Barcelona.
Malen was really good.
Hoping for this headline — minus the under-23s part — twice next season.