Having not won since September, Arsenal U23s went into Friday night’s clash away to rivals Tottenham Hotspur in desperate need of a victory.
Steve Bould’s side managed to achieve that objective as they won 3-1, with Robbie Burton, Trae Coyle and Nathan Tormey all on the scoresheet in a hard-fought success.
There were three members of the first-team squad involved for Arsenal, with Konstantinos Mavropanos involved as usual, while Reiss Nelson (who returned from injury) and Emile Smith Rowe were also called upon.
All of that trio performed well, although Nelson was only on the pitch for the first 45 minutes as he was then replaced by Ben Cottrell in a pre-planned change.
This is an Arsenal U23 side that, those three players aside, are still finding their feet at this level, with many of the individuals involved having stepped up from the U18s last season.
As a consequence there have been some rather elementary mistakes at times, but there have been some encouraging signs of late that they are making progress and heading in the right direction, especially when it is taken into consideration that they took four points from games against Tottenham and Manchester City.
Next up for the young Gunners, this time under the U21 banner, is a trip to face Cambridge United in the Leasing.com Trophy. The result of that game isn’t of great significance given that Arsenal can’t progress to the knockout stages, but it will still be a very useful experience for the youngsters to test themselves against senior players.
next season.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Good one them, having not won for a while to come back and stick it to Sp*rs would hopefully kickstart the season for the young lads.
But about this cup, are teams like Arsenal u21 just there to fill up the programme? Why can they not advance to knockout stages?
They can’t mathematically advance to the knock-out stages because they’re 4 points behind second place with only one match left.
Ah my bad, makes sense then 😉 thnx
Well done young Gunners. Take your time but looking forward to seeing some of these names involved in/around the first team in the next couple of seasons.
What’s with the “next season.” at the end? Editing mistake?
Good ebening
Good job seriously good positive news in the Arsenal world!