Despite falling to a last minute defeat in our final UEFA Youth League game against Club Brugge, David Horseman believes we can take plenty of positives going forward.
We stood firm with 10 players for most of the game, but two late efforts gave the Belgians all three points and means we ended the league phase with one victory over Bayern Munich.
Our team consisted of a host of youngsters and reflecting on the competition as a whole, David has high hopes for the future.
He said: "Every game, bar Slavia [Prague], where again, we had a much changed team, the games have been decided by moments where we haven't quite had enough in both boxes.
"What I would say is when I look at the squad for next year, all these boys can play. From the whole tournament, we can carry this squad forward, and I saw so much that it fills me with excitement to see what we've got coming."
We opened the scoring against Brugge through Demiane Agustien's well-placed finish but we were reduced to 10 players on 32 minutes when Mishel Nduka was sent off.
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U19s report: Club Brugge 2-1 Arsenal](https://www.arsenal.com/fixture/under-19/2025-Dec-10/club-brugge-u19-2-1-under-19-match-report?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
Late goals from Yanis Musuayi and Jakke Van Britsom completed the Brugge comeback but despite that, Horseman was proud of his youthful squad.
He said: "I think my initial thoughts are for such a young group, real pride. It’s a huge learning experience; we obviously made a conscious effort in the last couple of games to go with a young squad. Some of these lads are 14 or 15 years old and I was so proud of them.
"What we've probably learnt this season from it in total, but particularly today, is how you manage a game. It’s 1-1, we've been down to 10 men for 60 minutes. We had the chance to manage the game better, in really tough conditions.
"I think we were more than competitive. We showed more than enough in certain individual areas to know that it was the right decision in the last couple of games to do what we did and give experiences to younger players."
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