Arsenal’s u18s pulled off a dominant 5-1 win against Southampton as they look to get a good league run going.

Last month the academy side slipped to a bitterly disappointing 4-3 defeat to Manchester United, having led 3-0 at one stage. Since then they’ve turned things round and been near-unstoppable, defeating Reading 4-0, before following that up with this 5-1 win over Southampton.

After a relatively quiet start to the game, the u18s took the lead with a well worked goal from Tyreece John-Jules in the 40th minute, and went into half-time 1-0 up. However it was in the second half that the Gunners really came alive.

Immediately after the restart Zak Swanson made it 2-0, before a penalty for Southampton brought it back to 2-1. Any worries that the Gunners could suffer from nerves after the lead they threw away against United were quickly alleviated as Danny Ballard scored a header 10 minutes later to restore the two-goal cushion.

Arsenal then got a penalty of their own, which John-Jules converted for his second of the match, before Bukayo Saka made it 5-1 late on to complete the scoring. Another four-goal win and the u18s seem to be back on track.

Line up: Virginia, Daley-Campbell, Clarke, Omole, Thompson, Ballard, Smith, Swanson, Saka, John-Jules, Balogun

Subs: Benson (for Smith), Okoflex (for Swanson), Spencer-Adams (for Daley-Campbell

Not used: Okonkwo