One of the stranger aspects of academy football is the way in which games are scheduled, with U23 games often played on Friday nights and U18 fixtures usually taking place on Saturday mornings.
That isn’t especially convenient for players who flit between the two squads, but Sam Greenwood took advantage of the scheduling to score two important goals within a matter of hours.
On Friday Greenwood emerged off the bench for the U23s against Derby County at Meadow Park and scored within seconds of coming on, with Arsenal eventually drawing 2-2.
The following morning, with the U18s 2-0 down against Chelsea at Cobham, Greenwood scored an excellent free-kick and Arsenal again went on to salvage a point.
There were some major similarities between the two incidents, with both games coming against the league leaders and with Greenwood, coincidentally, scoring in the 80th minute on both occasions.
Greenwood, an England youth international, was hugely impressive in his first season at Arsenal following his switch from Sunderland, but, until recently, had found goals rather harder to come by this season.
It is hoped that these goals will now lead to Greenwood finding the net with more regularity, and he is certainly one of the standout prospects in the academy at the moment.
—
Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
So we’ve got our own Greenwood or he’s related to the one at Utd?
Thanks for the update, Jeorge. Wishing all our young players the best for their development
I think you are mistaken Vescucci, there is only one Greenwood, our Greenwood?
And Jonny Greenwood. He’s an excellent Greenwood.
Well.., that’s an interesting piece of news coming from our academy.
is it normal for our/other teams youngsters to play matches so soon after each other?
Hahaha happy to hear our own Greenwood scoring for fun…