Tyreece John-Jules continued to step up his recovery from injury on Tuesday night, playing 45 minutes as the Arsenal u21s won their final pre-season friendly.
Tyreece John-Jules missed the end of the 2022/23 campaign with an injury, but the Arsenal youngster has been involved on the pitch again recently.
The 22-year-old striker featured in a behind-closed-doors game earlier this month, before making a start against Bishop’s Stortford FC in an u21 friendly on Tuesday. He even pulled on the captain’s armband for the fixture.
There were quite a few changes to the Arsenal youth side, likely with Friday’s season opener against West Ham United in mind.
But the rotated side got off to a very good start, with Jimi Gower turning home a chance in the fourth minute for a 1-0 lead.
Gower proved the primary threat for Mehmet Ali’s side in the first half, forcing a save with a shot from 25 yards before scoring his second from a tight angle in the 28th minute.
The hosts finally woke up around the half-hour mark, with a trialist forcing a save from Rojas, but Arsenal took a 2-0 lead into the break.
With 45 minutes under his belt, John-Jules came off for Henry Timi Davies, and there were chances for both sides in the early stages of the second period.
Gower had another long-range effort turned wide to prevent his hat-trick in the 64th minute, and Arsenal made three changes, bringing on Seb Ferdinand, Cam’ron Ismail, and Daniel Oyetunde.
Bishop’s Stortford briefly appeared to make things interesting by pulling a goal back shortly afterwards, with George Sykes finishing from close range.
But 16-year-old Oyetunde was on hand to tap home his first u21 goal just three minutes later and restore the two-goal advantage.
That ended up being the final goal of the contest, with the Arsenal u21s ending pre-season on a win.
Arsenal u21 lineup vs Bishop’s Stortford FC
Rojas, Rosiak, Foran, Jeffcott, Quesada-Thorn, Lewis-Skelly, I. Oulad M’Hand, Gower, Kamara, Edwards, John-Jules
Substitutes
Davies (for John-Jules, 46), Ferdinand (for Kamara, 60), Ismail (for Rosiak, 60), Oyetunde (for Edwards, 60), Okonkwo, Akolbire, Heaven
What’s next?
As mentioned, Arsenal take on West Ham in their opening Premier League 2 fixture on Friday, August 11th at 19:00 BST. The game will take place at Meadow Park, with free entry for supporters.
Jeorge Bird highlights that the team for that match could look very different from the side that faced Bishop’s Stortford, as you can see below.
Most of the U21 team that will start on Friday v West Ham have seemingly been rested tonight – team for that game could look something like this: pic.twitter.com/FYIOXjPuo3
— Jeorge Bird (@jeorgebird) August 8, 2023