Mehmet Ali and Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand have shared their reactions after the Arsenal u21s’ 4-2 win over Boreham Wood to kick off pre-season.
Arsenal took on Boreham Wood on Saturday, with 22 Arsenal u21s featuring for 45 minutes each and combining for a 4-2 victory to kick off pre-season.
Arsenal u21 boss Mehmet Ali was particularly impressed with Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand, who scored twice and assisted once in the first half to put the Gunners 3-1 up.
“Salah has matured really nicely,” Ali said after the game.
“He’s had different loan experiences. He’s been unfortunate with injuries, but this season he’s been a bit of a leader in the group.
“He’s normally on the winning team when we’re doing games in attack v defence practices and he showed that today, so I was really pleased for him to get an assist and two goals.”
Arsenal’s first team will return to training on Monday, before travelling to the United States later in the week.
On the possibility of first-team call-ups for that trip, Ali added:
“We’re just trying to get the lads as ready as possible before hopefully some of them get the opportunity next week to be with the first team, get some minutes in games that they will play and the opportunity to potentially travel to America.”
Salah-Eddine also spoke to the Arsenal website after the match, reflecting on his recent development and receiving an assist from his younger brother in Saturday’s friendly.
“I’m very hungry this season, especially because I haven’t been able to hit the ground running and play consistently in the last two years,” Oulad M’Hand said.
“There have been reasons, but hopefully I can turn it around this year. I feel very good mentally and physically, so thankfully I was able to show that pretty well.
“I will thank Ismail later and cook some dinner for him!”
Perhaps Salah-Eddine could be one of those in line for first-team inclusion, particularly with how he’s kicked off pre-season.
The Arsenal u21s play another fixture against Enfield Town on Tuesday, so that will be one last chance to catch the eye outside of the usual training sessions before the U.S. tour.