U21 Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur 4 (Fryers, Dombaxe (pen)), Munns (2)) Arsenal 2 (Akpom (2))
Arsenal U21s are still looking for their first win in the Elite Group after losing 4-2 to arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur at the latter’s Enfield training complex this morning. Chuba Akpom put Arsenal ahead, and would add another in the second half to continue his fine run in front of goal, but, in between those two strikes, Tottenham found the net three times themselves, with midfielder Jack Munns proving particularly influential, adding another goal late on.
Coach Steve Gatting made three changes from the side that drew with Manchester United last time out, with Hector Bellerin, Kristoffer Olsson and Zak Ansah coming into the side in place of Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill, Nico Yennaris and Thomas Eisfeld.
Fabianski
Bellerin-Hajrovic-Angha-Miquel
Olsson-Hayden
Gnabry-Henderson-Ansah
Akpom
subs: Shea, Neita, Monteiro, Wynter, Rees (for Ansah, 74).
Tottenham included former Manchester United defender Zeki Fryers in their line-up, and the desire of both sides to impress resulted in a cagey opening few minutes in which little in the way of clear cut chances was created. That changed when Akpom was played through on goal, only to see his shot saved by the legs of the alert Jonathan Miles.
On the next occasion that he found himself in a similar position, however, Akpom made no mistake, slotting the ball past Miles with ease following good build-up play from Isaac Hayden and Serge Gnabry. The goal continued the 17-year-old’s prolific run of form in front of goal recently, with this goal his fifth strike since the turn of the year, bringing him into double figures for the campaign as a whole.
Arsenal were certainly in the ascendancy at this stage, and could have doubled their lead shortly afterwards when Gnabry did well to pick out Akpom again, with the striker rattling the crossbar on this occasion. Ansah was on hand to meet the re-bound, but shot straight at Miles, before shooting wide when well placed in a separate move just minutes later.
Lukasz Fabianksi, the only member of the first-team squad in action for the Gunners, then did well to save from Jack Munns, but the Tottenham player was offside anyway, before the same player went down in the penalty area following a challenge from Ignasi Miquel, but the referee waved play on. Munns was certainly making a nuisance of himself, with Fabianski having to rush off his line to gather the ball with the midfielder well placed.
Tottenham had evidently, over the past ten minutes or so, been re-asserting themselves on the game, and they drew level with 28 minutes on the clock when Fryers beat Fabianski with a well-placed effort. Things threatened to turn from bad to worse for Arsenal when Miquel again brought down Munns in the penalty area, and this time a penalty was awarded. Angolan striker Laste Dombaxe stepped up to take it and succeeded in sending Fabianski the wrong way to put Tottenham into the lead.
Tottenham continued to pile on the pressure even after taking the lead, with Munns testing Fabianski with another fierce effort, before former England youth midfielder Dean Parrett shot just wide from a free-kick.
Arsenal seemed determined to restore parity after the break and came close to creating several openings before Gnabry fired a shot at Miles in frustration. It was Tottenham who would get the next goal, however, with the in-form Munns on hand to turn home after Kenneth McEvoy’s cross was not properly dealt with.
McEvoy was becoming increasingly influential, and teed up Nathan Byrne who forced Fabianski into a good save, then Arsenal mustered something of a response with Conor Henderson’s stinging shot testing Miles. Akpom was refusing to give up the fight, however, and offered Arsenal a lifeline after battling past Giancarlo Gallifuoco and slotting the ball past Miles to make it 3-2.
It was, by now, an enthralling end-to-end contest, with Munns, Akpom’s principal rival for supremacy in this game, then heading wide. Arsenal now sensed that they were capable of producing a comeback which had seemed rather improbable just ten minutes earlier. Gnabry delivered a teasing cross into the penalty area, which just eluded Isaac Hayden, and a tempestuous finale ensued, with both Sead Hajrovic and Parrett booked following a contretemps.
Josh Rees, on as a substitute, then had a seemingly legitimate penalty claim turned down, but Munns struck again in stoppage time to make certain of Tottenham’s victory. Akpom had another effort cleared off the line at the death but, despite his best efforts, Arsenal returned to London Colney with a defeat.
–
U18 Premier League
Arsenal 1 (Fagan) Aston Villa 6
Meanwhile, a far more experienced U18s side than the ones that have been fielded in recent weeks suffered a 6-0 defeat at the hands of a Dan Crowley-inspired Aston Villa side at London Colney.
Several members of this season’s FA Youth Cup squad were included, but Arsenal still fell to their third consecutive defeat at this level, having been five goals down by the break. Zach Fagan’s late strike, his first goal at this level, was barely a consolation.
Iliev
Mugabo-Fagan-O’Connor-Moore
Jebb-Kamara
Maitland Niles-Iwobi-Dawkins
Lipman
subs: Smith (for O’Connor), Hinds (for Maitland-Niles)
*Full analysis from this fixture to come on Monday.
Angha has played LB not CB!
Akpom looks like a star in the making, scoring against the better teams at under 21 level is a good sign. Under 18s are worryingly bad and doesn’t look like many of quality are coming in this year except Zelaleam
lets not go OTT on Zelalem yet, hasn’t even played for u18s yet.
Is eisfled injured?
Interesting that Brady has left and had a pop at the Academy especially the fact that it is miles behind Tottenham’s. Looks like the quality of youngsters has dried up and Arsene won’t be able to say we are building a great young team for the 8th trophyless year running.
the academy has nothing to do with wenger muppet,guess who was in charge…..Brady
lordgunner, sadly you are the muppet. Wenger has taken enormous interest in the Academy as all good managers do, but this has decreased a lot over the years. The quality of scouting has dropped and local boys are joining less and less due to the obsession with foreigners and, annoyingly, the network of scouts at our neighbours. At the games I attend, Tottenham are the most visual and forward of clubs and have a clear strategy of who they want to give contracts to and I am no longer sure that is the case with Arsenal. It’s ironic that as you are writing such a puerile and ill informed comment the U18s lost 6-1 to Aston Villa which is unheard of. Liam Brady is a legend and should be listened to. He has resided over the Academy through enormous amounts of success and is merely pointing out that even at that level standards have dropped. Thankfully, Wenger will listen and act and his approach to Vierra is positive. You can continue to make pathetic comments – and try telling Wenger that he is not in charge of the Academy. He is in charge of everything to do with football, which has been one of the criticisms of him in the past in that he doesn’t always listen.
Where did you see him having a pop?
The 18s were appalling. So many defensive errors, particularly with the own goal. Don’t know what has happened to Jebb recently, head has gone and not looking anything like the player he was through his early teens. Lipman didn’t have the service he needed to show anything he is capable of. Not sure if it’s all squad related though, management seems to be doing something wrong in every age group through to the Firsts at the moment, sounds like we just need a big kick up the backside.
Things certainly look pretty bleak at the moment compared to 5-6 years ago when we had the future to look forward to. Seems that most of our youth players are being over-rated or have not managed to improve after leaving the lower age groups.
Sounds like you could be right. Even the players like Lipman, Iwobi and possibly Mugabo who are the strongest in the team are made to look bad by the lack of ability of the players around them. They could really fall victim to being lumped with the others and not get the chances they deserve.
I remember finding a clip of dirinon tournament back in 2007, where Arsenal lost the final. I am very confident that both Jebb and Lipman played in that game and the thing that struck me was how much bigger those two were compared with the other kids. I do wonder those two are just the latest in a long line of early developers to come out of our academy.
the under 18s probably dont know their arse from their elbow. what is it 3 managers this season? the under 21s have been ravaged by injuries and loans as well. sure results are unimportant but when u a.re winning u find it much easier to develop
Looks like everyone at Arsenal have taken their eyes off the ball. All defences are leaking goals and everyone’s just trying to score more than we concede.
The THFC side had just lost six of their best players in the development squad from loans(Townshend,Pritchard,Falque,Kane, Obika, Mason) and so the win was far better than it seems. Without meaning to sound cocky or arrogant, it is about time we beat you lot at this leve especially as we used NextGen players to replace the above
Where has our successful Arsenal youth gone? Bad day all round. U18′s result is simply embarrassing…
Wow!!! You fellows must be pretty desperate to censor my post.
Amazing how well you cope with having the boot on the other foot.
I think”pathetic” is the word that applies here.
And to think that I actually had some respect for your club.
You are as poor a loser as is Ferguson
What are you on about?
Hmm I think that an apology is due to the website.
I checked to see if my note had been posted but as it had not and this is not unusual as I tend to irritate certain groups, I assumed that it had been wiped.
However, afterwards I realised that most of you were busy at the Emirates so…Mea Culpa!!
Off topic but just watching Afobe v Boro. He finally looks fully fit and is very strong and quick. His direct running is causing problems every time he gets the ball. I fell he will definitely be a Premier League striker. I hope he gets the opportunity to impress with us.
I think so too, he’s a late bloomer but he’s got desire to make the most of his ability. Although I believe the progress Akpom and Campbell are making might force him to move to carry on his development. I didn’t watch the game but read that he made the winning goal with a great dribble and powerful shot and someone else tapped in the rebound.
I think the u18s plight this season has a lot to do with the instability of having three different coaches this season. How is any young player going to develop under those conditions seriously. And a lot of people do tend to overrate some of our players that coming into the academy side and its something that needs to stop because even liam brady hinted in fourfourtwo magazine that a lot of them are believing all the hype surrounding them and get treated like top players already with blogs like this around (not being critical, just the truth). But we have to except that we dont have the best academy side anymore not by a long stretch
We have been smashed 5-1, 4-1, 6-2, 6-0, 4-2 this season oh my word i just realised
better youngsters, better first team, better training ground, and soon to have better a stadium the futurs bright, LILLYWHITEBRIGHT
tell um will wate
I have never seen us change teams for the U18 so many times this season before. and our U21 looks also younger than it used to be. I think this is just a big change in our academy. We used to have pretty much the same U18 side all the time but now they constantly needs to adopt to a new U18 team. That might be good but not in the long run.
Sorry but that is NO excuse. Just look at the age of our side and how many played in the youth cup for THFC (for the development match…I know nothing about the U18 match)
I donät care about ONE match! Tottenham won ONE game vs our side. I don’t give a fuck. I am not talking about ONE fucking game. I am talking about AFC academy. I haven’t seen the highlight of the game. what are you trying to say? That Tottenham was head and shoulders above? If that is a big deal for you winning Arsenal then grats. I don’t giva fucking shit about ONE game. We have to beat every single team no matter which team we are talking about here and we have o win it very convincing. Thats what I care about.
Understand? You come to AFC youth blog and trying to mess with us. Most of us don’t give a fuck about ONE game vs tottenham. you are just a team out of many we have to beat. In the end AFC will ALWAYS be the bigger club and will be successful.
What were the ages of the Spurs side?
Our U21 starting eleven had five 17 year-olds – Bellerin, Hayden, Olsson, Gnabry, Akpom.
no wonder bradys gone hes ransacked the coaching and playing pool at youth levell. now his henchman laraman got the u18s watch out for more cheeful results 6-0 etc……
Jom…how does one answer such a pile of bile disguised as drivel?
It is individuals like you who are the first to invade our websites and crow your malicious spew all over them when you win. I was simply showing a truth about the discussed match.
I don’t like cheats and hence I don’t like AFC,( but I do NOT hate AFC),. but WTF do you know about 1919?
We have far more in common than we have diffferences but obviously your jingoistic flag waving means that you wont understand nor wish to.
You are the reason that so many of us think that we hate each other, so I will be blunt: before Wenger and apart from the Eastham blip in the early 60s. you lot were a defensive long ball side who bored their way to trophies no matter who tries to rewrite it.
Your current success is due to Wenger and I laugh when I hear you lot criticising him as you have NO IDEA as to how lucky you have been and you must realise that winning is NOT an AFC divine right.
Do you realise just how much you embarrass your own fellow supporters?
BTW the THFC U21 side had NO STRIKERS available for that match and played 4-6-0 so work that one out if you can. Yes I know, I waste my time but……
first of all… people like me who come to your blog? I only visit 2 youth blog and those are about arsenals youth. I don’t give a shit about tottenham and other blogs. second of all all arsenal supporters know wenger is the reason we have such a good team. third.. just becuase he made us big doesn’t mean we want more… we don’t only want to be up there.. we want to win it but the most important thing is to be up there and at the moment we are not and wenger might be one reason for that. do you get it? you start a fight about yeah tottenham side was a lot younger like we really care about that…. fact is it was ONE game. I don’t care about the past how we play. chelsea, city and a lot of other side was shit and played long ball before they got their money… whats your point? team change.
Will, ever heard of the Herbert Chapman era, where we dominated, playing football that had never been seen before??? Alex James, not a boring player by all accounts, Cliff Bastin, a better winger than anything you lot could serve up, and ted Drake, as lethal a striker as anything you have produced, bar Jimmy Greaves in his early years, perhaps, heard of them have you???
Go back to your own kind and stay away from the Arsenal sites for a while, eh???
Highlights of the u21 game.
Looks like sloppy defending cost us the match. Miguel should be better than this.
the youth system needs to embrace the 21st century and all the new practises and not live in the past like the first team, it needs upgrading and investment from bottom to top. The club is in danger of becoming a working museum.
So, the person to give us the British mentality is not even British?
Actually mate, that’s your opinion, not fact. Tosser