It has been a frustrating couple of days for the Arsenal academy, with the club’s U21 and U18 sides suffering disappointing defeats against high-profile opponents.
Firstly, on Friday night the U18s faced Manchester City away in the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup.
The young Gunners, who were without the services of Max Dowman and Marli Salmon, found themselves 4-0 down after just 43 minutes.
A penalty from Ceadach O’Neill and a strike from Brando Bailey-Joseph saw Arsenal respond but City added another goal late on to ensure that they progressed to face Chelsea in the next round.
Yesterday a somewhat makeshift Arsenal U21 team were thrashed 7-0 away to Liverpool – the heaviest defeat that the club have suffered in Premier League 2 history.
Arsenal were missing some key players who featured in the aforementioned Youth Cup game and they also started two U16 players in midfielders Emerson Nwaneri and Mishel Nduka.
Despite the circumstances, it was still a very frustrating occasion for Arsenal U21s, who will be determined to bounce back when they host Burnley next Friday.
It is anticipated that Arsenal will have something that closer resembles their normal squad available for that fixture but results such as the one that occurred yesterday should still not be allowed to happen.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird