Arsenal U23s may have suffered frustration in being knocked out of the Premier League Cup on penalties by Middlesbrough this week, but the experience was still a positive one for Nathan Butler-Oyedeji.
The Hale End product signed his first professional contract last summer, which meant that he became a fully-fledged member of the U23 squad.
However, the 19-year-old has had to be patient for opportunities and has only made six appearances in the league for the U23s so far this season, with the majority of those coming as a substitute.
Butler-Oyedeji is capable of playing as a striker but he isn’t the most prolific of players. He has plenty of experience of playing as a winger but against Middlesbrough he was deployed behind the striker after coming on as a substitute.
Arsenal were without a recognised centre forward due to Mika Biereth being unavailable, and Butler-Oyedeji’s introduction helped to provide the team with a greater attacking threat.
It appeared that Arsenal were going to be eliminated in normal time but Butler-Oyedeji won the penalty from which Omari Hutchinson scored a late equaliser.
Middlesbrough ended up winning on penalties but Butler-Oyedeji will be full of confidence following his contribution.
The youngster has also trained with the first-team recently and will hope that he will now receive more minutes in the closing stages of the season.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Hopefully he becomes a loyal servant to Arsenal.
F’in winkers
I would like it if Winking became synonymous with Winning. Especially when not Arsenal are Winking.