Arsenal Under-18s made it seven wins in a row with a wild 6-4 victory over Brentford.
Arsenal Under-18s made it seven wins in a row in all competitions after beating Brentford 6-4 in a remarkable 10-goal game.
Vincent Joseph scored a first-half hat-trick, Maalik Hashi struck twice and Patrick Stachow* added the other as Arsenal held off a Brentford side inspired by their own hattrick grabber, Jai Nwosu.
The win moved Arsenal up to third in the table and continued an excellent run of form, although they were made to work for it.
Arsenal started brightly, with Elyon Mbala winning the ball high up the pitch before getting to the byline and setting up Joseph for a simple finish with just three minutes on the clock.
Brentford responded quickly. Teshaun Murisa brought down Andrew Noni inside the area and Nwosu converted the resulting penalty just six minutes later.
After 10 minutes without a goal, the visitors then went ahead after a defensive mistake allowed Nwosu to round Charlie Phillips and score his second.
Arsenal did not stay behind for long.
Almost immediately, Joseph was brought down by Josh Oladapo-Gamu, with Hashi stepping up to put the penalty into the top corner just two minutes after they’d fallen behind.
Five minutes later, Joseph restored Arsenal’s lead after Hashi’s free-kick came back off the post, reacting quickest to score his second of the game.
His hat-trick arrived as they headed into added time. Murisa found Joseph inside the area, with the forward finishing to send Arsenal into the break 4-2 ahead.
If anyone expected that to calm things down, it did not.
Nwosu completed his own hat-trick just eight minutes after the restart, collecting a loose ball before finishing across goal.
Again, Arsenal restored their two-goal advantage quickly, although they did take four minutes this time.
Luis Munoz delivered a corner, Murisa headed it down and Stachow flicked the ball towards goal to make it 5-3.
Still Brentford would not stop, but the goals did at least slow down.
Nwosu (or Jovan Kasujja**) scored Brentford’s fourth despite pressure from Dan McCarron, cutting Arsenal’s lead back to a single goal with 25 minutes remaining.
With 15 minutes remaining, Hashi finally gave Arsenal some breathing room after combining with substitute Emerson Nwaneri. Nwaneri broke down the left and pulled the ball back for Hashi, who finished for Arsenal’s sixth.
Even then, Brentford thought they had found another way back into it when Nwosu put the ball in the net again, but the goal was ruled out for offside, denying the Bees a fifth.
*Arsenal’s match report says that Axel Donczew scored for Arsenal when their own tweets and Opta stats say it was Stachow
**Arsenal’s match report says Nwosu scored Brentford’s fourth but their tweets during the game, and Opta stats, say Kasujja. Arsenal’s scoreboard on Arsenal.com for the match is a mess.
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