Arsenal U21s concluded their preparations for the new campaign on Tuesday as they overcame Bishop’s Stortford in a friendly.
With the game coming just three days before the start of the season, coach Mehmet Ali elected to rest his starting lineup for the game against West Ham United and instead gave opportunities to a host of other players.
That, in turn, led to Ali naming a rather young bench that included a host of first-year scholars, with Daniel Oyetunde amongst them.
The 16-year-old striker received a fleeting taste of U21 football last season as he featured against Fulham and Burnley.
It is anticipated that Oyetunde will mainly be involved with the U18s in the early stages of the campaign but he could well step up to the U21s as the season progresses.
Oyetunde gave a good account of himself against Bishop’s Stortford as he managed to get on the scoresheet, with midfielder Jimi Gower hitting a brace in a 3-1 win for Arsenal.
With his clever movement and dribbling Oyetunde certainly matches the demands that Arsenal want from a striker and it will be intriguing to see how he progresses this campaign.
If Omari Benjamin, another good prospect, is used more out wide then it could open up opportunities for Oyetunde to be deployed in attack.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Please can you be helping us with the pictures of the players involved.
Good luck them all as look forward to a trophy laden season for all categories and levels of Arsenal
Was gonna say I’m assuming Oyetunde is in one of the seats there at the top in the shade where we can’t see him, what I can’t work out is whether Omari Benjamin is sat next to him
(I’m guessing they didn’t have a high res pic of him or they’d have used it)