Tyreece John-Jules provided two assists starting for Blackpool in a new position on the left in their League Cup fixture against Sunderland on Tuesday.

Carabao Cup - Blackpool v Sunderland - Neil Critchley, Head Coach of Blackpool, shakes hands with Tyreece John-Jules at the end of the game. Copyright: Craig Thomas / News Images
Carabao Cup – Blackpool v Sunderland – Neil Critchley, Head Coach of Blackpool, shakes hands with Tyreece John-Jules at the end of the game. Copyright: Craig Thomas / News Images

Arsenal loan striker Tyreece John-Jules has generally started in a centre-forward pairing for Blackpool so far, but he was named in Neil Critchley’s starting lineup on the left-hand side against Sunderland in Tuesday’s League Cup fixture.

The change appeared to pay dividend in the early stages, as John-Jules picked the ball up on the left in the ninth minute. He squared up a defender before cutting past him with a stepover and cutting a pass back for Shayne Lavery to score the opening goal.

The lead didn’t last long, with Aiden O’Brien equalising in the 12th minute, before giving Sunderland the lead in the 57th. But John-Jules was involved again as Blackpool equalised late on.

This time the Arsenal loanee found himself in the right channel, and after receiving a through ball from Josh Bowler he again found a cutback to set up Bowler’s equaliser. You can watch the two goals here at 0:07 and 1:24.

It wasn’t Blackpool’s night, and they ended up conceding a few minutes later to lose the tie in injury time. But from an Arsenal point of view, it was great to see John-Jules getting off the mark with his first goal contributions of the loan, particularly playing an unfamiliar role.

Now the 20-year-old just needs to get on the scoresheet. He has quite the test to do that at the weekend, as he’ll be facing Arsenal teammate and loan centre-back Dan Ballard away at Millwall.