Arsenal under-18s head coach Adam Birchall was delighted with his side’s performance in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Birmingham City.
First-half goals from Sam Chapman and Alex Marciniak set us on our way to a fourth consecutive win, maintaining our 100% start to the season.
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U18s highlights: Birmingham City 0-2 Arsenal](https://www.arsenal.com/news/u18s-highlights-birmingham-city-0-2-arsenal?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
On the win over Birmingham City…
“Actually, there were a lot of similarities in terms of the opposition from the Norwich game two weeks ago. But this time we scored from the set-piece early, and I think that was a crucial learning point for the team.
“I think we started the game really well and we were on the front foot, created a few chances, but when you're playing against a team that plays in that mid to low block, set-pieces are important. That's something I was really pleased to see added to their game today. I think we spoke about that after Peterborough in midweek.
“Our second goal was really well-worked, and I thought we had good control in the first half.
“In the second half, we tried to change it a little bit. We started to play around the sides a bit more, work on a few different things based on what the game was giving us, but in general, three games in a week, I'm really pleased with the boys and their mentality.”
On what’s been key to our impressive start to the season…
“It's just training habits, behaviours, mentality to want to win games, but also the quality when we are playing games to take chances. We’ve been strong defensively, too. I don't think we've conceded from open play yet.
“People taking responsibility and doing their job, and that transferring from training to games is not something that you just turn on because it's a match day. It's something that we put in the thread of training, and that could be a reason, but also it will be the characters we have in the team as well and the demands they put on each other.
“One of the players spoke about this before the game in terms of their mentality and getting the most out of each other, and that's what I see from this group so far this season. So I'm really pleased with the start that the boys have had.
“But we will learn from this game and go into the details required during a week, training things and then see what the next game brings and the challenges that we get.”
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