Our young Gunners fell to defeat against Crystal Palace in their final regular season fixture of the 2025/26 PL2 campaign.
Goals either side of half-time from Joe Gibbard and Kaden Rodney secured the win for the hosts.
WHAT HAPPENED
The home side started brightly and almost took an early lead when Gibbard fired over from close range.
Our first opportunity came through Ceadach O’Neill, who drove forward with purpose, but his effort trickled just wide of the post.
Palace continued their strong start and made the breakthrough soon after. We struggled to deal with a long, direct ball from the goalkeeper, and a miscommunication at the back allowed Gibbard to lob Khari Ranson and find the net.
After the break, the hosts were awarded a penalty when Joel Drakes-Thomas was brought down in the area. Rodney stepped up and calmly sent Ranson the wrong way to double Palace’s advantage.
We pushed to respond, and Demiane Agustien came closest, but his strike was well saved by Harry Lee in the Palace goal.
Despite getting into some promising positions, we were unable to find the cutting edge needed in the final third.
WHAT IT MEANS
The result sees us finish the regular season on 29 points from 20 matches.
WHAT’S NEXT
Our under-21s will now turn their attention to the Premier League play-offs, starting with an away tie in the last 16.
Opponent and kick-off details will be confirmed in due course.
[Read more
U21s qualify for Premier League 2 play-offs](https://www.arsenal.com/news/u21s-qualify-premier-league-2-play-offs?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
TEAM NEWS
Crystal Palace XI: Lee, Whyte, Jemide, King, Farquhar (Drakes-Thomas, 53), Reid, Cardines, Rodney, Umolu (Brownlie, 79), Williams (Obou, 90), Gibbard
Subs unused: Izquierdo, Adams-Collman
Arsenal XI: Ranson, Hamill (Ferdinand, 46), Clarke, Salmon (Ogunnaike, 46), Washington, Ibrahim, Agustien, O’Neill, Harriman-Annous, Stevens (Dudziak, 60), Mooney (Bailey-Joseph, 79)
Subs unused: Porter, Bailey-Joseph
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