Winter Arsenal signing Evan Mooney scored a fantastic long-range effort for the u21s in a convincing win over Reading on Monday night, and he wasn’t the only youngster to impress.
Arsenal completed the signing of Evan Mooney from St. Mirren earlier this month, squeezing the deal in ahead of the winter transfer deadline.
The 18-year-old forward has gone straight into the Arsenal u21 team, appearing in a draw with Everton and a 1-0 win over Newcastle over the last few weeks. But when the teenager got his first goal for the club against Reading on Monday, he did it in style.
Picking up the ball in his own half, Mooney raced into Reading territory before launching a surprise shot from just outside the centre-circle. The Reading goalkeeper was caught off guard, and the shot sailed over him into the net for 1-0.
You won’t see many better first goals for Arsenal, and the good news was that it wasn’t the team’s last impressive finish of the evening.
Theo Julienne sparked an attack in the 54th minute with a clever turn in Arsenal’s defensive third, playing a one-two before finding Andre Harriman-Annous in space on the left. Harriman-Annous forced his man to backpedal before cutting inside and launching a strike into the far corner for 2-0.
Four minutes later, it was three, with Ceadach O’Neill volleying home a cross by Marcell Washington. The Gunners seemed to be holding their own Goal of the Month competition.
Reading found a way back into the game with an emphatic finish by Jerae Jones in the 68th minute, but Philip Duah headed an Arsenal free-kick into his own net for 4-1 to kill the contest with 15 minutes left.
The highlights are available to watch here.
On top of the excellent goals, there were some strong individual performances from Arsenal on the night.
Other than scoring, Harriman-Annous linked up well with new signing Mooney and drew a couple of Reading bookings, whilst centre-back Marli Salmon put in a composed performance both in and out of possession.
17-year-old O’Neill also continues to make a case for himself as an u21 starter, despite largely playing for the u18s this season.
But perhaps more importantly, the Arsenal u21s as a unit are really picking up steam now after an embarrassing 7-0 defeat to Liverpool to kick off 2026.
The team have responded with a five-game unbeaten run including four wins, and though they sit in ninth, Arsenal have cut the gap to the top of the league to just eight points.
We can make excuses about the heavy defeat to Liverpool, with three players that day having since left the club, multiple u18 debutants both in the starting lineup and off the bench, and the fact the u21s hadn’t played a competitive match for two months (with Liverpool playing the previous week).
Yet having said all that, the Gunners still needed to show a response to that setback, and they’re doing so.
Arsenal u21 lineup vs Reading
Porter, Dixon, Clarke, Salmon, Washington, Ibrahim, Julienne, Agustien, Mooney, O’Neill, Harriman-Annous
Substitutes
Stevens (for Agustien, 79), Marciniak (for Harriman-Annous, 79), Ogunnaike (for Dixon, 83), Bailey-Joseph (for O’Neill, 87), Ranson
What’s next?
Arsenal face Ipswich Town at home on Friday, February 27th at 19:00 GMT, before taking on the other half of the East Anglian derby with a match away to Norwich City on Friday, March 6th at 19:00.