A strong Arsenal U21 side produced a superb first-half performance to overcome their Aston Villa counterparts at Boreham Wood’s Meadow Park last night.
Arsenal, who welcomed back striker Benik Afobe from a lengthy injury lay-off, raced into a four goal lead before the interval, with midfielder Jon Toral scoring twice to add to goals from first-team squad members Serge Gnabry and Emmanuel Frimpong. Villa capitalised on some lackadaisical Arsenal defending to reduce the deficit to 4-2, but Arsenal still ran out victors and remain unbeaten so far this campaign.
The scoreline was perhaps a little misleading, not because it disguised any aspects of Arsenal’s performance, but because Villa did not deserve to be four goals down by the break, with the visiting side, who traditionally possess a strong youth set-up, providing an attacking threat of their own, particularly through dangerous winger Jordan Graham.
Arsenal, though, reaped the rewards that their scintillating attacking play merited, with Toral sweeping a perfect ball into the path of Gnabry to open the scoring before the Spaniard found the net himself following good work from the energetic Thomas Eisfeld. Toral then doubled his tally by prodding the ball over the line after Afobe had done the hard work of lobbing Villa goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist, before Frimpong scored a rare goal via a header from a corner to give the scoreline added gloss.
A weak pass by Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Macey, a recent acquisition from Bristol Rovers, allowed Michael Drennan to reduce the deficit, before Graham Burke made it 4-2. Despite this, an audacious Villa comeback seemed rather unlikely, and so it proved with Arsenal instead holding on to stretch their unbeaten league record this season to six matches.
They are not in league action again until they face Sunderland next month, but before then they will travel to Carrow Road to face Norwich City in the inaugural U21 Premier League Cup. At present it is rather remarkable to reflect upon just how many attacking options coach Steve Gatting has at his disposal at this level, with players such as Kristoffer Olsson and Chuba Akpom, who have featured for the first-team this season, only making the bench last night, with Olsson only coming on for three minutes and Akpom remaining unused throughout.
The return to fitness and form of Toral and Afobe is hugely satisfactory for the club, whilst Gnabry’s performance told us little that we didn’t already know, with the dynamic winger clearly a cut above U21 level at the tender age of 18. Frimpong, meanwhile, will be pleased to have completed 87 minutes, but the midfielder’s long-term future at the club remains rather uncertain, with his contract due to expire in the summer.
Afobe faces a similar predicament, but if the England U21 international can keep producing performances like last night, then he may yet be granted an extended stay. The striker didn’t find the net himself but came perilously close to doing so and impressed with his hold-up play.
