U21 Premier League
Arsenal 0 Tottenham Hotspur 1
By Jeorge Bird at Underhill. Att: 2394.
Arsenal’s faint hopes of reaching the U21 Premier League play-offs were extinguished following a tempestuous North London Derby at Underhill, in which Tottenham Hotspur prevailed courtesy of a goal from Nabil Bentaleb early in the second-half.
In truth, Arsenal had been second best for much of the evening, with many of Steve Gatting’s contingent failing to operate to their full potential, whilst Tottenham, buoyed by their raucous set of supporters, dominated for much of the opening period. Chuba Akpom struck the crossbar in the second period, but the Gunners, despite the presence of first-team squad members Carl Jenkinson and Francis Coquelin, failed to muster a commendable performance.
Tottenham enjoyed much of the early possession, with Kenneth McEvoy crossing for the ever-lively Shaquile Coulthirst, whose shot was gathered by Damian Martinez. Akpom then shot just wide at the other end as a measure of response, with Tom Carroll doing likewise as the visitors began to assert themselves on proceedings.
Arsenal certainly had Martinez to thank for keeping Tottenham at bay in the first-half, with the Argentinian goalkeeper making several notable stops, including a particularly impressive one to deny Coulthirst. Cristian Ceballos also came close on two separate occasions, as the game threatened to complement the unusually vibrant atmosphere that greeted the fixture.
Arsenal did have their moments, with Jenkinson’s cross finding Serge Gnabry, but the German couldn’t execute an adequate finish, before Martinez had to make two further saves, from Ceballos and Coulthirst, before the half reached its conclusion.
He would be left stranded, however, almost immediately after the interval, when, with Arsenal’s defence dozing, Tottenham constructed a swift, passing move, with Bentaleb applying the finishing touch to score what proved to be the game’s solitary goal.
Ceballos and McEvoy almost inflicted further damage, before Jenkinson skied a free-kick horribly high into the North London sky. Gedion Zelalem had shown occasional flashes of brilliance, but was flagging by the hour mark, with the comparatively experienced Sanchez Watt replacing him.
The change seemed to provide Arsenal with some much-needed momentum, with Jernade Meade delivering a precise cross, which Akpom latched on to. The striker’s powerful header looked to be looping towards goal, but instead rattled the crossbar, with Gnabry squandering the re-bound.
Arsenal upped the tempo a little, with Akpom firing wide and Watt skewing over. Tottenham, meanwhile, had further chances to extend their lead, with Ceballos proving a particularly lively threat and, although the last chance fell to Akpom, Arsenal hadn’t really been deserved of taking something from this game.
Tottenham had already secured qualification for the end-of-season play-offs prior to this game, but staked their credentials for the title here, whilst Arsenal will play out their final two fixtures with no real target in sight. There were not too many positives to take from this evening, with Coquelin particularly wasteful in possession, whilst the team as a whole failed to provide much in the way of support for the hard-working Akpom.
Gatting will be hoping for better against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the penultimate game of the season next Tuesday.
Arsenal: (4-2-3-1)- Martinez; Jenkinson, Hajrovic, Hayden, Meade; Yennaris, Coquelin; Olsson, Zelalem (Watt, 63), Gnabry; Akpom. Not used: Shea, Eastmond, Bellerin, Monteiro.
Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth 
COYS. aRSENAL reALLy are da SCUM
Do, do, do shame about the Arsenal! COYS
Tottenham also have 12, 13 players out on loan eg Coulibaly, Mason, Pritchard, Smith, Kane, Luongo to name some and all of them deemed better hence their respective loans. The future looks bright the future is white, lilywhite.
Thats all due to the great work Tim Sherwood does to get the players on loan.
Arsenal need someone to do the same thing to assist the development of young players. Times have changed, clubs now have the pick of any academy to take a player on loan and Arsenal’s stance of wanting clubs to beg them to take a player has left them behind in the development of players out on loan..
Lets see how many of your players come through and contribute to you lot being a consitent top four side. I don’t mind losing at Under 21 level, if we produce at least one player good enough to play for Arsenal, a consitent Champions League side. I’m confident we’ll get 3 maybe 4 from this group to our first team, and be good enough. Lets see what happens with the Sp*rs group shall we?
lilywhite… your so funny doggy
Oh well – will expect a Spurs video is being made up now for their shops. Even supporting the kids their fans are classless!
Sounds like Coquelin had a poor game, which is disappointing to hear as I’m a fan of his. How are his long term prospects like at Arsenal do you think?
If you watched the game last night and was asked to pick which of the two, Yennaris or Coquelin, is the first team player you would have picked Yennaris without a second thought. Yennaris out shone Coquelin by a country mile.
J.B. Anything on the man city play Arsenal have an interest in call abdisalam Ibrahim, maybe Patrick Vieira can pass him on to Arsenal.
Our youth is very underwhelming. Great support from the Tottenham contingent. Their team is really special.
So basically Spurs hammered Arsenal for 90mins then.
They were in control until Watt came on, he made a difference.
Should have started with Eastmond in place of Olsson and Zelalem.
Best player on the pitch was a toss up between Hajrovic and Yennaris.
Gave everything, Dissapointed with Jenkinson and Coquelin.
How can a first team player allow the ball to be played between himself and the centre back, means he is too far away. Coquelin went through the motions, played like he did not want to be there. He should be setting the example to the youngsters and ended up being out shone by Yennaris. criminal.
Olsson wants too much time and space to play, was never going to get that last night. Should have played Eastmond.
Zelalem needs to be nurtured, feels like we are rushing him through and will end up burning the kid out. Watt made a difference when he came on for Zelalem.
Positives last night were the performances of Hajrovic and Yennaris, You would think the latter was our first team player and not Coquelin.
So Eastmond, a CDM, leaving in the summer should’ve started. We would’ve had 3 CDM’s playing (Yennaris and Coquelin). 3 CDM’s is way too defensive. Whilst he might not have been the best, I still think that starting Olsson at RM was the right decision. We have at least learnt that we should play him CM or CAM but not RW.
I feel Bellerin should’ve started to help provide a more attacking threat. I would’ve put him LB instead of Meade despite him being a RB.
Some spurs fans are talking like they won 5-0….clam down lads you won only 1-0 !Yes they dominated us most of the time but definitely not for 90 minutes , when Watt went on Arsenal were the most dangerous side , our problem was the midfield who was dominated by tom carroll , man of the match , and couldn’t link well with the forwards letting Akpom do all the job basicaly alone . Zelalem , Coquelin , Olsson were the worst yesterday , Zelalem had some moment of brilliance but most of the time couldn’t cope with the pace and physicality of the game , Gedion is definitely not ready for the U21 , they have to let him develop in the U18 first .Olsson was invisible at RW , when he played more centrally things went a lil bit better but he still struggling . Coquelin and Yennaris were outshone by Carroll , they couldn’t prevent him to dictate the tempo and when they had the ball couldn’t made a good choice , Jenkinson was disappointed also , he played like he was a beginner….he still needs to work on his technique .
Martinez , great perfomance yesterday , Akpom , Gnabry were the best Arsenal players…..the only ones to save from yesterday game .
ps: I like to inform all spurs that we produced a player who is born in 92′ like Carroll but he is a regular with England ……I really don’t think your academy is better than ours !
‘clam down’ is that a new manouvre used to leave the stadium early?
I think some arsenal fans have missed the point here of the ‘raucous contingent’.
In an increasing corporate world, the premiership had become a sanitized and almost dull at times, parade of games. Whilst News Corp spends every waking hour talking it up, there is perhaps more enjoyment to be found by going to youth games, supporting your team and being entertained. And best of all it is free.
Most of there last night wanted to do one thing, enjoy ourselves, by singing regardless of the score, supporting our team and then going home happy. Without any bother, incident or outside of the ground fracas.
Spurs fans cannot be alone in seeing the decreasing atmosphere for the majority of games as the corporates take hold. I know many gooners who talk of ‘how it used to be at Highbury’ who would love to turn up, stand up, sit down and sing for 90 minutes rather than sit in marshalled fashion having paid a kings ransom to ‘be entertained’.
We came we sang, we scored, we left, happy.
Don’t hate us, join us, not literally, but in an #againstmodernfootball stylee. Turn up, sing, laugh, maybe take your shoes off, and leave happy.
And we got to sing ‘ just like gervinho’ each time your strikers missed.
I also agree with the above comments Sanchez Watt made the difference in the second half, dictated tempo for your lot and looked more threatening. Your keeper might also be in with a shout at a first team place (but that might be more to do with the current 1st /2nd choice). I had expected better from the likes of Coquelin and Jenkinson, but the latter was owned by a kid you’ve never heard of (McEvoy) all evening, and the former outplayed by our own fringe player in Tom Carroll.
Bring some more fans next time, sing up, and enjoy the best night you will have, for free. And remind yourself of what football used to be about.
Get lost. Sp*rs muppet!
Thank you Ryo for your eloquent and well structured response. Clearly I will have to up my game, in order to achieve the dizzying heights and standard of response you are clearly used to.
I was providing context to the atmosphere that was at underhill last night, you have merely demonstrated the distinct ‘lack of class’ leveraged at us.
To the wider Arsenal audience, with more than one brain cell, consider this:
When was the last time you went to a game, not basing your enthusiasm on whether you expect to win or lose, but to just go and enjoy yourselves regardless of the result.
Try it some time, you may just find you like it.
Mate you’re on a blog about Arsenal youth and you’re trying to preach to us about enjoying youth football. That’s why I called you a muppet. Couldn’t care less about the result at Youth Football it’s about seeing the players develop and hopefully have a good career and hopefully with the Arsenal. Glad you lot had so much fun by the way. 🙂
The problem I see here on this site, is this…why do you Spurs fans bother to come on here??? I would never, in my wildest dreams, think of coming on to a Spurs’ forum or site, and expect to be welcomed with open arms, especially after a loss. So why expect us to be any different from you??? It’s just as sad when someone form our side, and I know there must be one or two, come on to your youth site or first team site, and make fun of your side. Why bother??? Really, don’t you have ANYTHING better to do???
Spot on Milo !
But as you know, spuds fan get to rejoice on rare occasions.
And What disappoints me is that, They got only a bunch of 12-15 pissy peoplefor to spam on our youth blog? In them stands they were in thousands.
Hi Jeorge, I was reading Gunnerblog earlier and in the comments section, there was a comment talking very strongly about Isaac Hayden being a fixture to come in the Arsenal 1st XI in years to come. I’ve heard much about Zelalem, Gnabry, Akpom etc. but what are your thoughts on Isaac Hayden? Is he the real deal as others are saying?
he’s a good reader of the game and can play at centre-back or in defensive midfield. he still has some aspects to improve on, but is developing very well.
Kyle Ebecilio will undergo a medical this week at FC Twente. Shame really, would have liked him to sign with my favorite team PSV or even better still with Arsenal of course. Anyway thought I would mention it here, I read it in the Dutch news this morning.
Jorge can you post some of your own opinionated articles and who the top players n the academy are