U18s report: Arsenal 2-1 Leicester City

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Our young Gunners came from behind, despite finishing the game with nine men, to beat Leicester City 2-1 on Saturday.

In an eventful afternoon at London Colney, Leicester missed a penalty, we had Chido Obi sent off, Kaleb Dyke gave Leicester the lead, Michal Rosiak equalised for us, and Omari Benjamin then scored our second before getting a second yellow card himself.

Early chances

Daniel Oyetunde looked lively on the left throughout the first half for us and he beat his man before working his way into the box to shoot from a narrow angle, but it was a simple save for Harry French in our first chance of the game.

With less than 15 minutes played, we gave away a penalty when Tommy Neale’s shot was judged to strike the hand of William Lannin-Sweet. Thankfully for us, Reece Evans put the spot-kick wide of the bottom left corner.

End-to-end encounter

A tidy passage of play saw Michal Rosiak set up Chido Obi, who curled the ball into the goalkeeper’s gloves.

Maldini Kacurri gave away a free-kick on the edge of the area, which Mirsad Ali curled towards the far post, but Noah Cooper was on hand to catch the ball.

Louie Copley won the ball high up the pitch for us and earned a free-kick, which Rosiak lifted to the far post, but the ball just evaded Luis Brown.

Leicester came close again when Ali’s cross was flicked on by the head of Reiss Khela, but the ball flew wide of the post.

Oyetunde showed great control with his chest to take down an aerial pass from Rosiak before weaving his way into the penalty area, but once again the Foxes were able to clear the danger.

We then made a foray down the right as Josh Nichols played a great ball through to Sebastian Ferdinand. He crossed for Obi who, shooting first time with our best chance of the game, struck wide of the bottom left corner.

Cooper did well to push away another dangerous delivery from Toby Ononaye and the two sides went into the half-time break goalless.

Foxes take advantage

Early in the second half, Obi was sent off for a high foot and we were reduced to 10 men.

In the 64th minute, we made an attempted clearance but it fell kindly for Kaleb Dyke, who tucked the ball into the bottom right corner to give the away side the lead.

Dyke struck wide of the far post moments later, but the introduction of Kamarni Ryan off the bench proved to be a pivotal moment for us.

Ryan's instant impact, down to nine men

Turning his man and driving forward, Ryan won a free-kick on the edge of the area. Up stepped Michal Rosiak to bend it over the wall and into the left of the goal for 1-1.

Ryan continued to pull the strings, timing and weighting his pass perfectly for Omari Benjamin, another substitute, to run through on goal. Benjamin poked it into the bottom right to put us 2-1 up, but was shown a second yellow card for delaying the restart, after his first yellow card had been shown for scoring when the offside flag had gone up.

Down to nine men, we held firm, Cooper preventing Logan Briggs from getting a late Leicester equaliser. Seven minutes were added on but we held on admirably to the 2-1 win.

WHAT IT MEANS

We rise to sixth in the Under-18 Premier League South with 11 points from seven games.

WHAT'S NEXT

Following the October international break, our Under-18s are back in Premier League Cup action against Middlesbrough at Rockliffe Park. It’s an 11am kick-off on Saturday, October 21.

TEAM NEWS

Arsenal XI: Cooper, Nichols, Kacurri, Brown, Sweet (Ismail 72), Rosiak, Copley (Benjamin 56), Akolbire (Shuaib 66), Ferdinand, Obi, Oyetunde (Ryan 72).

Substitutes (not used): Rojas.

Leicester City XI: French, Aluko, Ali (Thomas 45), Neale (Donnelly 53), McAlinney, Khela, Dyke, Ononaye, Toure (Briggs 85), Amartey (Otchere 62), Evans

Substitutes (not used): Bausor