In the opening week of the competitive youth season for Arsenal, the young Gunners showed their attacking prowess but also a worrying defensive frailty.
The Arsenal u18s kicked off the academy season with a match against Aston Villa, and it didn’t lack for entertainment. With eight goals and a red card in the 5-3 victory, it was just the kind of exciting opening day fixture you want as a neutral.
As an Arsenal fan, there were obviously lots of positives in there. Marcelo Flores’ performance was the main one, as he scored a hat-trick and provided an assist to play a direct role in four of the Gunners’ five goals.
Another positive was Khayon Edwards, who gave a positive early response to the challenge laid at his feet by the recent arrival of Amani Richards.
Richards joined the Gunners from Chelsea earlier this year, and started with a bang with a few early goals in his first games for the u18s. He went on to add another couple of goals in pre-season, so the pressure was on Edwards to retain his spot up front.
With a first-half goal in a free-flowing attacking performance against Villa, he won’t be disappointed with his start. In all, the u18s managed a huge 27 shots and 12 on target to win the game.
But after racking up a 5-1 lead in the opening hour, it was a little worrying to see the side concede twice in the next 10 minutes and keep the game alive. Eventually the game was killed off when a Villa red card reduced them to 10 men, but it should have been over on the hour mark.
The u23s then travelled to West Ham, where they were embarrassed with a 6-1 thrashing.
There are some valid excuses for the result, including that it was new manager Kevin Betsy’s first competitive game in charge and West Ham named three outfield starters in their late twenties and early thirties (Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Masuaku). They also had a couple of 21-year-olds in midfield up against Arsenal’s team of 10 u19s and Zak Swanson (20).
There’s also the fact that Arsenal’s two most talented young goalkeepers (Karl Hein and Arthur Okonkwo) are effectively being taken away from the u23s by the first team. Replacement Ovie Ejeheri is still finding his feet at this level, particularly when the ball is at those feet.
But inexperience aside, that result just isn’t good enough from a defensive standpoint. The mistakes for the early goals were the same as we’ve seen from the team all year, with players conceding possession in their defensive third to gift their opponents chances.
Questions have rightly been asked about the make-up of the side. As talented as Charlie Patino, Miguel Azeez, and Ben Cottrell are, they just don’t offer much defensive cover. Jeorge Bird suggested that the likes of Mauro Bandeira and Jack Henry-Francis could be utilised to give the midfield some balance, and that would certainly make sense.
In the same vein, new forward signing Mika Biereth would likely be better supported by two wingers instead of playing alongside just Omari Hutchinson up front, even with so many attacking midfielders behind him. It’s not that the players currently being selected don’t have the ability, it’s just a case of finding the right teammates to complement them.
One of the very few positives of the defeat was that Hutchinson continues to look bright. He went close with a free-kick, he won the penalty for Arsenal’s only goal, and he seems to be picking up with the u23s where he left off with the u18s last season.
If Betsy recalls Kido Taylor-Hart to the team on the other side, the team won’t have trouble scoring goals. Arsenal finished the game with Taylor-Hart and Hutchinson on the wings, and Nathan Butler-Oyedeji up front, and it was perhaps no surprise that was when they scored.
In my personal opinion, Alex Kirk should also be a starter, regardless of which u23 centre-back you have to drop for him. Omar Rekik, Mazeed Ogungbo and Zane Monlouis all started against West Ham, and I’d have Kirk involved over any of them. It’s nothing against any of them, Kirk has just been more reliable from what I’ve seen of him in possession.
So there are plenty of changes Betsy can make to help shore up the defence, and his back-line won’t be up against the likes of Yarmolenko and Lanzini most weeks.
Still, it’s clear that changes are needed to get the best out of some talented attackers and help out the struggling defenders, and the same is true to a lesser extent for the u18 defence as well.
It’s all very well scoring six goals in a couple of games between the two teams, but you can’t be conceding nine.