Five Arsenal youth players joined first-team training on Tuesday, raising the possibility some of them could be involved with the senior squad in Wednesday’s League Cup fixture.
Due to a midweek clash between Arsenal’s u21 EFL Trophy match against Exeter City on Tuesday and the first-team League Cup game against Brighton on Wednesday, the Gunners couldn’t use their youth players in both fixtures.
Instead, they had to pick one or the other, so it’s worth noting which youngsters missed out on the EFL Trophy game to join Mikel Arteta’s squad in training on Tuesday.
That list includes Andre Harriman-Annous, Max Dowman, Alexei Rojas, Louie Copley, and Cam’ron Ismail.
Dowman is the least surprising of the five, as he was even with the squad for the Premier League game against Crystal Palace at the weekend. Though the 15-year-old didn’t officially make the bench, he was the extra man for that game.
Striker Harriman-Annous has also been a regular in first-team training in the absence of Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus. It’s not impossible the young forward could get a matchday call-up, particularly as he can also play on the left-wing and Gabriel Martinelli is unavailable.
Goalkeeper Rojas is very likely to join the squad too, but probably as the third-choice backup goalkeeper helping out in the warm-ups. Kepa Arrizabalaga will surely start the match with David Raya on the bench.
As for midfielder Copley and left-back Ismail, there’s no specific reason to believe they’ll be involved, with Arsenal well stacked in both positions already. But it’s not impossible Arteta could choose to rest one or two of his senior players.