Arsenal youth coach admits they didn’t deserve win after comeback draw

The Arsenal u18s played out a comeback draw on Saturday, with head coach Adam Birchall admitting they should have won, but didn’t deserve to.

The Arsenal u18s played their final game of the season on Saturday, bringing their campaign to an end with an away match against Crystal Palace – just like the first team will next weekend.

With the u21s already having been eliminated from the Premier League 2 play-offs, this was the final fixture for any of the Gunners’ top academy teams, and it initially looked like being a depressing send-off.

Within just 10 minutes, Palace had a 2-0 lead, with Donte Martin and Raihaan Anderson taking advantage of defensive errors.

But Arsenal fought back, and Maalik Hashi stole the ball off the Palace defence to score in the 27th minute for 2-1, before the same player set up Brando Bailey-Joseph for an equaliser two minutes later.

Arsenal will ultimately be disappointed not to have gone on to win the game, with Palace goalkeeper Jack Mason receiving a red card in the 66th minute.

The match ended as a draw, and head coach Adam Birchall admitted it’s what his team deserved for their poor start.

“We should have won the game, but I said to the lads we didn’t deserve to win because of how we started,” Birchall told Arsenal.com. “We fell on the back foot and went 2-0 down. Credit to the players, they responded and the full second half completely dominated the game.

“We just couldn’t find a way to win, but I think sometimes not winning the game is the biggest lesson. The team responded and showed some great character.”

On the season more generally, Birchall suggested their use of younger players has given them a good basis for the coming campaigns.

“I’m always excited for the players, obviously, the under-16s that will come up next year,” Birchall said. “We’ve had them play quite a lot this season, and we had under-18s play up in the under-21s, with many first-years getting game time.

“So, we’ve been very young this season and I’m really excited to see that the lessons learned from this year really impact what the players do next season and give them a real foundation to go on and have a career.”

Arsenal u18 lineup vs Crystal Palace

Ranson, Sampang, Stachow, Murisa, Owusu-Gyasi, Julienne, Hamill, Hashi, Marciniak, Bailey-Joseph, Zecevic-John

Substitutes

Onyekachukwu (for Hamill, 77), Phillips (for Hashi, 59), Lupinski, Frohock

• Ex-Spurs star defends former Arsenal midfielder
  Rafael van der Vaart has defended Fabio Vieira after a slow start to the midfielder’s second spell with Hamburger SV, who sit a few points clear of relegation in the Bundesliga.
• What Mikel Arteta really said about Arsenal’s job cuts
  Mikel Arteta has been widely misquoted by the media whilst talking about Arsenal’s decision to cut 60 jobs, with his words taken out of context to paint a different picture.
• Arsenal summer signing shines in 2-1 u18 north London derby win
  Arsenal summer signing Mylo Bernard scored a brace to help his new team come from behind to win the north London derby, despite two goalkeeper injuries.
• Arteta explains why Saliba was left out of team photo
  Mikel Arteta has explained why William Saliba was left out of Arsenal’s first-team squad photo, adding that they intend to take another one at some point.
• Arsenal player owns up to injuring Martin Zubimendi
  Mikel Merino has owned up to being the player who injured Martin Zubimendi during last week’s post-match warm-down, but he insists his fellow midfielder is alright now.