Both Cesc Fabregas and Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal’s academy youngsters after their impressive performances for the Gunners against Como 1907 on Wednesday.
Arsenal have increasingly been using senior players throughout pre-season, with the return of the World Cup internationals steadily limiting the number of minutes on offer to youth players.
The Gunners’ final pre-Community Shield friendly on Wednesday involved less than a handful of academy players, with Theo Julienne and Marli Salmon starting, and Josh Ogunnaike coming on as a very late substitute.
There were other academy graduates involved, including Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly, and Max Dowman. But they’re all considered senior players at this point.
Yet even though the number of youth players involved was smaller, they still made their mark. Salmon was particularly impressive, and he drew praise from Mikel Arteta after the game.
“First of all, he played with courage, and secondly, how fast he learns – because it takes weeks and months sometimes to develop certain things,” Arteta said.
“He picks things up really quickly – he’s a really smart boy, he really wants it, he’s 16 years old and some of his individual actions today were exceptional.
“He’s in and around the first team. The circumstances are what they are, that is the context that is allowing him to play more minutes.
“But what he’s proven in the last few weeks is that he’s reliable, and when we want to play him, he can do a job.”
Former Gunner and Como manager Cesc Fabregas was also complimentary of the Arsenal academy players, saying: “It’s amazing because that’s what it’s all about. Hale End does an amazing job.
“I had a chance to say ‘well done’ to them, but keep going and keep pushing yourself because it’s a long career full of ups and downs. They need to accept that not everything will be easy.
“Its not easy to play at Arsenal because in your position there are some of the best players in the world. If they want to give us some players as well, we can take them!”
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