Match report: Arsenal U18 0-1 Chelsea

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WHAT HAPPENED

We fell to a narrow defeat in our opening game of the Under-18 Premier League season, losing 1-0 to Chelsea at London Colney on Saturday afternoon.

Jack Wilshere took his place in the dugout for the first time as head coach and watched on as we fell behind inside five minutes; Alex Kovacevic racing out to clear the danger, but his clearance could only find the feet of Leo Castledine, who chipped our goalkeeper from long range.

We responded well to the early setback and took charge of proceedings, Amario Cozier-Duberry looking sharp in the opening exchanges and was unlucky not to score after racing through one-on-one against Ted Curd.

We were forced into a change just before the break, Kovacevic involved in a collision with an opponent which left both men in need of treatment and Alexei Rojas took up his place between the posts.

We started the second half brightly, Cozier-Duberry and Ethan Nwaneri both coming close to an equaliser, while Seb Ferdinand also looked sharp on his first start at this level.

Wilshere shuffled his pack with a host of changes in the closing stages as we pressed for a goal and almost found it through Omari Benjamin, who just failed to make contact at the near post with Cozier-Duberry's dangerous low cross.

The visitors withstood our late pressure to claim all three points in our opening match of the season.

WHAT IT MEANS

We failed to get off the mark in our opening match in the Under-18 Premier League season, but there were plenty of positives to take from our performance.