Arsenal take on Chelsea in the Fourth Round of the FA Youth Cup on Thursday evening. The high profile London derby is the tie of the round, with the Blues looking to defend their title against the Gunners, who are the favourites to win the trophy again.
To get some perspective on Dermot Drummy’s side ahead of the fixture, Young Guns caught up with Chelsea Youth writer Phil, who blogs about their prospects for TheChels.net. We started off by talking about the opinion on the Arsenal setup from across London.
“I think it’s hard to evaluate Arsenal’s current group of Under 18s, as the entire squad is made up of first-years. Even with schoolboy involvement, it’s a huge change to the individuals in terms of day to day lifestyle so expectations have to be made accordingly. That may mean more patience than usually offered for the youth team, who have been rather dominant in recent years and as a result probably excited a few fans.”
“Arsenal have done exceptionally well across youth and reserve ranks in the last couple of years but the time has to come to push players further, and that can often lead to the breakup of the successful sides, in the search to get that player into the first team. It’s another piece of the puzzle and fans mustn’t be short-sighted and worry when the results aren’t favourable. Trust your coaches, they’ve been in the game a long time and typically know what they’re doing.”
The perspective from afar on the way Liam Brady has handled the current group of youngsters is positive, but what about Chelsea? What shape are they in ahead of the crunch clash?
“The current Chelsea youth team, or Youth Cup team, isn’t as strong as last year’s. Not by a long shot. It lost eight players when we won it due to age graduation. Take away Josh McEachran from the early rounds due to first team involvement, plus Rohan Ince and Philipp Prosenik through injury, and the picture isn’t much prettier. That said, they’re a hard-working group who have played together often, and are strongest at the back.”
“Retaining the trophy means everything to the team at the moment, but realistically I expect they know their limitations. I just fear there’s not enough game-changers to pull it off. Last year’s team was full of them.”
Arsenal are rated by many as the favourites to win the Youth Cup again. The thrashing of lowly Darlington was just the first step, as the likes of Benik Afobe and Chuks Aneke found their rhythm. However, Chelsea are the holders and will be unwilling to part with the trophy without a fight. So how does Phil see this one going?
“I’m fearful that Chelsea’s cup run ends here, for a few reasons. I watched Arsenal win 3-0 at Cobham earlier this season and whilst we were in the game for a long time, we didn’t have what it took to sustain things deep into the second half. That comes from a lack of a cutting edge, which the team really lacks without Prosenik, and when you come up against a team as potent as Arsenal, you have to take your chances.”
“Ultimately, I feel that Arsenal’s greater depth across the board against a Chelsea team which will be including at least two schoolboys in the squad is going to be the deciding factor. It’ll be a good game and a close contest for the most part, but I can see Arsenal coming on stronger as the game goes on and taking it.”
The fixture is a 7pm kick off at Stamford Bridge. Finally, we asked Phil’s view of the most talked about topics regarding the two clubs. The comparisons between Jack Wilshere and Josh McEachran. So, Wilshere or McEachran?
“Can I say both? I don’t see why they can’t co-exist. They’re going to be compared for a long time because they’re so very similar physically, both left-footed, and both have the same style of play, with low-slung arms and an almost nonchalant appearance of everything coming to them easily. Yet they’re both fairly versatile and bring different attributes to the table – Wilshere’s a bit more physical, more prone to drive into the final third and has that impudent touch about him, whereas Josh is more prone to dribble through players and play the simple ball, making himself available for the return. They can certainly play together, and I look forward to seeing it for England.
“Right now though, just to be sure, one is playing regular Premier League football and the other is just dipping his toe in the water. There should be no direct comparison between their abilities at this stage.”
You can follow Phil on Twitter @ChelseaYouth.
