november 10th
The kids continue where they left off in the last round of the Carling Cup by taking out Premiership opposition. This time it was a 3-1 victory over Everton. We fell behind early on before goals from Quincy MD and two goals from Arturo Lupoli put us into the next round.
It’s fantastic stuff from the young guys who are really showing what sort of talent the academy is producing and they’re giving the manager something to think about with their performances. Two goals from the 17 year old Italian, on top of the 754 goals he’s already scored for the reserves and under-19s, will ensure he’s in the manager’s thoughts as the season progresses, while van Persie and Quincy will be pushing as well.
Afterwards the manager was quick to praise his young charges saying, “It’s a great night for the club. It’s not only that we qualified, but that we did it in style and we love doing that. I believe I could put that team out against Tottenham if we had to, but I won’t do that as I have a great belief in the first-team squad.“
He also says he’s not tempted to start any of the youngsters against Spurs but when the first team squad see these kids performing like that they know they’re going to have competition sooner or later. The only downside to last night’s game was the news that Edu has suffered a broken toe and faces an as yet unspecified time on the sidelines. That does leave us a bit short in midfield with Gilberto out till February, so Cesc will continue his rapid development and we’re bound to see a bit more of Flamini too.
Elsewhere Arsenal Mania ask ‘Is this the commemorative shirt for next season?’. Arseblog says ‘No, no it’s not.’ My reliable sources tell me that’s not even close. Tony Adams has resigned as manager of Wycombe Wanderers to concentrate on piano playing and poetry writing. It wasn’t exactly a roaring success of a first job in management and while it’s very early to judge maybe it’s another case of great player = not so great manager.
Right, that’ll do for now. Early, innit?
