Reserves League South returns this evening with Neil Banfield’s second string hoping to give a much needed uplift to Arsenal fans, who have had a difficult few weeks.
Indeed, even at this level Banfield’s usually rampant Gunners have struggled, a 4-1 thumping at the hands of Aston Villa last week left a sour taste in the mouth, the second defeat of the campaign. Chelsea are the only other visitors to Underhill this season, they also walked away with the points on Match Day one.
International duty and a string of injuries have left gaping holes in the squad, they are filled tonight by first team members Mikael Silvestre and Amaruy Bischoff. Luke Ayling earns his first start of the season at right-back, with Craig Eastmond and Gilles Sunu named on the bench.
Rene Steer returns to London after failing his trial at Cheltenham, the impressive Emmanuel Frimpong sits alongside him on the bench.
Bischoff is only expected to get an hour at the most on his debut, whilst Silvestre asked to feature – probably in the knowledge of Arsene Wenger’s imminent presence.
Confirmed Starting XI
Szczesny
Ayling – Bartley – Silvestre – Gibbs
Bischoff – Coquelin – Randall – Wilshere
Fonte – Simpson
Subs : – Shea, Steer, Eastmond, Sunu, Frimpong.
Stoke may be Premiership new boys, but they boast an extremely strong team for the 7pm kick off. England Under 21 starlets Andrew Davies and Tom Soares are included, striker Vincent Pericard was once on the books of Juventus, and in two former Man Utd boys Ryan Shawcross and Danny Pugh, a quality encounter is expected.
Young Guns predicts a 2-1 scoreline this evening, with the lack of in form strikers proving the potential down fall against an experienced City team.
Prediction – Arsenal 1-2 Stoke City
The game will kick off at 7pm but coverage starts in the live channel from 6.30pm with all the pre-match build-up and team news. For those who miss our live video stream of Monday’s game, extended highlights and post-match reaction will be available on Tuesday.
Should you not have access to any of these things, a full Match Report will be available seconds after Full Time on Young Guns.
Article By – J.Sanderson
I hope someone will watch the match and he/she will write the live result.
Does this mean steers move to cheltenham has fallen through.
probably
u predicting for us to lose. thats bad
Only chance now is to go down to 3rd tier and play for Barnet and work his way up from there, hopefully Forrest will take the others.
We want Pongo! We want Pongo!
THE BISCH!
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Can bishoff feature 4 d first team when d international break is over.
I doubt it, he’s been out for about 7 or 8 months, so 1 reserve game won’t be enough, I expect he’ll be in contention before Christmas, maybe mid to late November.
Same applies for Rosicky, but we’re talking 2009 here.
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I agree J: the attack is the weakest thing about this reserve side. Neither Simpson nor Fonte can hold the ball up or link with midfielders very well – from what I’ve seen. It’s often quite frustrating to watch because there’s so much skill in the team and the forwards just don’t complement the other players properly.
Have to remind myself that win or lose, it’s all good experience for the lads, but it’s hard to resist the temptation to criticise when it’s so clear what the problem is.
The problem is defence we can score at anytime but if you dont defend right then you will lose because 6 goals we’ve let in from 3 games thats poor.
Is Rhys Murphy injured?… he wasn’t involved in the u18s game and will not be involved tonight.
Where’s Hoyte and Lanbury?
Where is Rhys murphy and luke freeman how come they didnt play in the england game last week.
I don’t agree that jay and rui don’t link up with the midfield
Shame on u Mr Sanderson for predicting a loss!!! Anyway I’m disappointed Randall doesn’t get to play DM as this could be his future position in a Micheal Carrick type role such as against Sheffield United.
Coquelin is playing today so its okay but I would like him to get more chances doing this.
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Arsenal-Stoke 0-1
WHAT A GOAL BY COQUELIN, GET IN MY SON!
1-1 coquelin
1-1 coquelin
ayling has looked good
Bischoff is looking surprisingly sharp aswell..
penalty for arsenal..
I miss ROSICKY,all this wont be happening 2 us if his available.I watched a match on ESPN Classic Dortmond vs feyernood in a Uefa cup final with rosicky n RVP playing respectively 4 both clubs.Rosicky played as d heart of d midfield ,he was superb and he played well both in d defense and d attack in d match.I hope he arrives soon.He could be d solution 2 our midfield crisis.Imagine
walcott fab rosicky nasri Or.
Walcott fab nas rosicky.With da silva and RVP up front,u feel it.
good comeback, hope we can add some goals. Outplayed stoke the last period, and our midfield looks great at times!
wilshere gettin targeted out there
And… goal or miss?
whats the score? is bischoff playing well
The reason Rhys Murphy, Henri Lansbury and Gavin Hoyte are with not playing in the Arsenal reserve team tonight is because they are with England U19’s squad for the games against Albania U19’s, Northern Ireland U19’s and the Serbian U19’s which are on the 8th,10th and 13th of october
Thanks for that Kent Paul. I was worried that Henri had been dropped… from the Reserves! Hopefully, he’ll shine for the U19s and will be able to force his way into the 1st Team within the next year or two.
Sanderson, the BBC were suggesting Lansbury was going on loan to Watford – do you know anything about that?
simpsons a damn ball hog
Lansbuty is also suspended as he got a yellow v Villa as I recall. If Norwich have concrete interest in him then I think wenger will let him go.
No problem mate
shooot shoooooot Arsenal were holding possession for a good few minutes there
Ah its 2 – 2 now
What a rash tackle from Bartley before the stoke equaliser. Bad. Tut Tut
Arsenal should have finished it off when they had the chance
Nice shot by Wilshere there
Stoke player sent off with a second yellow
How’s Bischoff looking? I heard he’s a Xavi type of player, not too defensive or too offensive.
he looked fitness wise okay and had a few good moments. but overall quite quiet.
Hard to jude him after 60 mins of football.
One thing that has to be said, Fonte and Sunu look much better than they did last season in my opinion.
rui fonte scores. dreadful defending and overall a disorganised match.
lol….having said that, 3-2… Great finish.
3-2 Arsenal goal by Fonte, nice long pass by Randall
I suppose it’ll take him a while to get to the level he wants to be at.
dude tried shoulder bardgin him but missed lmao NUTS goalie
full time
FT 3-2
Nice to get back to winning ways then
So is bishoff a winger or more suited centrally and how was our defence like
How were Bischoff and Silverstre?