Arsenal opened their Reserve League South campaign with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over their South West neighbours Fulham.
The young French duo Sunu and Coquelin were amongst the goalscorers along with Roarie Deacon who scored his first goal for the second string.
Arsenal were able to welcome back experienced first teamers during the 2008/09 season. Kerrea Gilbert, and Nacer Barazite had spent the majority of last season on loan at Leicester and Derby along with Gavin Hoyte and Jay Simpson who had both had short periods at Watford and West Brom respectively. Arsenal were also being lead by the newly promoted Captain for the forth coming 2009/10 season; Kyle Bartley.
The opening exchanges were relatively even and it was Fulham who created the first opportunity when Matthew Briggs headed a free header past the Arsenal post. However, Arsenal slowly marked their authority on the match and began to create some half chances with Sunu twice coming close and Simpson had an effort cleared off the line after some good work from Coquelin.
A breakthrough looked inevitable and in the 39th minute Giles Sunu dually obliged. Bartley picked out Sunu on the left wing with a fabulous cross field pass and aided with some poor defending Sunu was able to get in to the Fulham box and unleash a left foot stunner in to the roof of the net.
Two minutes later Sunu was at it again, swinging in a corner at the near post and picking out the unmarked Coquelin who nodded the ball in to the visitors net giving Arsenal a healthy lead just before the break.
Once again Fulham created the first opening of the second half, yet former arsenal trainee Michael Uwezu was unable to compose himself against his former club and sent his shot across the face of the goal.
Arsenal were happy to play keep ball and as a contest the game had drizzled out. Banfield’s final substitution was to bring on the young Roarie Deacon in the 79th minute and it was a decision which paid dividends. Two minutes after coming on Deacon picked up the ball on the right wing and played a neat one two with the other sub Murphy before curling the ball around a diving Neil Etheridge. It was Deacon’s first goal for the reserves and it shared a mighty resemblance with many of Messi’s fine finishes in la liga.
Barazite could of added a fourth late on but Neil Banfield will certainly be impressed with an opening day victory and the manner of the win.
Article By – Nick Love