Neil Banfield’s Reserve team draw their season to a close with a double-header against West Brom, with the first installment coming at The Hawthorns this evening. Another year of promise has not quite come to fruition, but a mid-tabled finish could still be achieved with three points – starting tonight.
After being second in the early stages of the campaign, failing to win during 2009 has seen the Gunners League position tumble like an avalanche. Goalscoring and a lack of experience at this level has been a couple of the notable problems, yet they’ll be boosted with the return of several loanees to the squad.
Abu Ogogo, Rene Steer and Rui Fonte all return and go straight into the starting XI. Fresh from featuring in the Premiership for the first team last weekend, Mark Randall and Fran Merida start in a flamboyant midfield. The real surprise however, is at the back, where Spanish centre-back IgnasiMiquel-Pons makes his first Reserve start at the tender age of 16.
Confirmed Starting XI
Mannone
Ogogo – Bartley – Miquel – Steer
Randall – Bischoff – Merida – Thomas
Fonte – Watt
Subs: – Szczesny, Evina, Ayling, Sunu.
Match Prediction – Arsenal 2-1 West Brom
The end of season clashes are usually entertaining affairs, and being boosted with a handful of older players returning, I would expect Arsenal to finally register their first win of 2009, but only just.
Kick off is at 7pm UK time. Arsenal TV and Arsenal TV Online are broadcasting the fixture live, but should you not be able to watch, Young Guns will have a Match Report available on the full time whistle, with analysis to follow tomorrow.
Article By – J.Sanderson
No Coquelin, Wilshere or Ayling? Do you know where they are?
Wilshere’s playing with England u17 but I don’t know about the rest
Wilshere is with England U17
England U17 played 1-1 against Holland U!7, a goal from Oqukyzap from Arsenal within 5 minutes.
Finished 1-1 yeah, Wilshere hit the bar with a curling free kick, Ozzie scored for Holland.
WHy aer all the youth team so succesfull and the reserves so shite? Merida Fonte Randall, Bartley Nordveit Miquel, these are big names. WHy are the results so shite?
Because we play a lot of first team players against other clubs.
Great individiual players don’t make a great team, and if we were building a team, there would be different players to gel the team together, instead we’ve got individuals, with a select few going through to mould into the first team eventually.
haho: Think of the reserves just in London – West Ham still have the billion rubbish overpaid players Curbishley bought, Spurs have 4,000 £15m rejects, Chelsea- ha! their reserves most probably cost more than Utd’s team last night. Also remember half our reserves are on loan.
The reserves is not just about winning- it’s about learning and… yes, while the amount of players in our reserves build up, it’s about putting players like Randall in the marketplace.
Coquelin is 17, he’s most probably in the u18s while more senior players take up the Reserves midfield. Or w/ France – Sunu and Evina are also missing.
Won’t ogogo be suspended but great to have him back in the team if he is starting
Is Evina any good? I’ve only ever seen U18 highlights but he looks fantastic. He actually looks like he can defend too. Any opinions on him? Why the hell is Thomas Cruise the number 1 left back? I’m angry.
loved the pizza article mate! nice work!!
YEEEEA IGNASI MIQUEL! I love that lanky spark plug, I hope he and “Howie” Nordtviet are the reserve CBs next term. Kyle Bartley has done enough to show he can run with the first team as a deputy alongside either Djourou or Senderos (since Song never should be covering on the defense… and Silvestre is done, stick a fork in the bloke).
http://youngguns.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/west-brom-1-1-arsenal-reserves-match-report/
Match Report Up!
Someone please answer my question about Evina it’s so frustrating how no one mentions him ever.
I think Evina is a good player, but a poor left back. He’s not quite mastered the art of defending yet but he’s getting there.
OK – cheers J.
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