Arsenal kick off their FA Youth Cup campaign tonight as Darlington travel to Underhill for the re-arranged third round tie. The fixture was due to be played on December 1st, but was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions.
Steve Bould begins this years onslaught on the back foot, following one of the worst starts to the league season in recent years. Arsenal are always looked upon as one of the favourites for the Youth Cup, but find themselves short on confidence heading into tonight’s game with a much talked about Darlington side.
Bould has highlighted a lack of quality at both ends as the main reason the Under 18’s have struggled. The rest of the team has shown much promise and it’s hoped two players could help to fix those aforementioned problems. Benik Afobe, on loan at Huddersfield Town but given special dispensation to play, will lead the line and add a quality option up front. Ignasi Miquel will step down from the Reserves and go some way to plugging the obvious holes at the back.
Darlington come from non-league football but are rated highly. They should give the young Gunners a real game, just like Crewe did at this stage of the competition last year. They will run into goalkeeper Emilio Martínez though, who has been one of the stars of the season.
The Youth Cup always inspires a buzz around Arsenal’s most promising players, as it’s a realistic chance to catch the eye at a young age. Arsenal head into the game with massive improvements to make should they want to go all the way, but with the quality of performances getting better and better, the further they go, the better Bould’s charges will get.
Kick off in one of the most intriguing Youth Cup campaigns for a number of years is at 7pm.
can aneke play?
It seems to suggest he’s available on the Arsenal match preview
http://www.arsenal.com/match-menu/172279/reserves/arsenal-res-v-darlington?tab=preview
Even though the U18s have been struggling of late, with the likes of Afobe, Aneke, Miquel, Yennaris and Ozyakup back, Arsenal should really blow Darlington away.
@eirik
Yes, Aneke only turned 17 this summer so is still eligible theoretically/
However, there is some discussion that he may be sent out on loan in Jan, so may be protected.
Yes, why wouldn’t Aneke be playing if he’s available.
I don’t like Bould’s suggestion that a lack of quality up front and in defense is the problem. This is disturbing news considering so many of these boys have come up through the academy ranks. Also, doesn’t speak well to recent scouting as Angha, his Swiss cen. defensive partner (can’t remember his name) and Phil Roberts, and Kyle Ebecillio were all highly touted recruits from other clubs.
I want to believe it’s age and stage of development, not quality that is accounting for the mediocre results this season, but Bould’s comments seem to suggest otherwise.
Regarding young Szczesny…I was very hard on him for his strong-arm tactics regardig playing time several weeks back. But his performance yesterday backed up his massive potential. The kid was outstanding…and on such a high pressured debut. It’s too early to know if he will skip the mistake riddled adjustment period that blotted Fabianski’s early starts but yesterday was a magnificent performance by the young genius.
I watched his interview after the match as well…calm and cool as a whistle. I want to see more of this kid! Without question, he is very special!
Well done Chez!!!
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/feature-from-youth-cup-to-carling-cup?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+arsenal-news+(News+Feed)
This is a really revealing article, the way Liam Brady talks about Lansbury, JET, Eastmond and Frimpong. Interesting that he comments on JET’s best position.
Not too convincing eulogising about Eastmond, I personally don’t think his future will be at Arsenal.
Encouraging comments on Frimpong though, I really like him it will be intriguing seeing what they do with him next season. I honestly think if he hadn’t got injured he would have been integrated in to the 1st team in a similar vein to Wilshere, not so much game time as Jack though obviously.
Phil Roberts is out for 2 months with a broken metatarsal
Frimpong won’t make it he just runs round hacking people. Can’t pass, shoot, dribble and has zero pace.
JET is an absolute muppet of a person. He was boomed out of his mind in a club the other weekend with his shirt off. Total fool. Another who will waste his amazing talenet.
Lansbury and Wilshere should make it becuase of awesome work ethic.
Frimpong got good pace.
—————Martinez——–
–Boateng–Hajrovic–Miquel–GBH–
——–Yennaris—-Embelicio—–
–Ozyakup–Aneke—Neita——-
——–Afobe———-
@montey. Barton is a muppet so is Carrol and alot of other PL stars. They still play at a high lvl. Look at A.Cole, J.Terry and P.Crouch, they are all idiots yet they preform at a high level.
That is what is annoying with football, it is a profession that does not care wheter you are an idiot or not. if you preform you get shit loads of money and are worshipped no matter what…
It looks like Craig Eastmond has slipped the rank. I think that Frimpong and Coquelin have jumped ahead of him. His off the field antics may not have endear him with the Arsenal Staff.
Frimpong is likely to go on loan next year first to recover his football after his long injury layoff and secondly to get more premiership experience. the same way TWilshere going to Bolton really helped him.