WHAT HAPPENED
Our under-23s delivered a convincing display to beat Sunderland 2-0 at Emirates Stadium on Monday night, courtesy of goals from Vlad Dragomir and Chuba Akpom.
The game began slowly, but came to life in the 12th minute when Mathieu Debuchy powered in a header, only to see his effort chalked out for a foul.
Soon after the half-hour mark, Jordi Osei-Tutu called Sunderland’s James Talbot into action, tip-toeing through the Black Cats backline and drilling an effort into the arms of the goalkeeper.
Shortly after the interval Steve Gatting’s side broke the deadlock through Dragomir, who slotted the ball into the top corner from close range after good work from Akpom to create the chance.
Substitute Tolaji Bola almost doubled our lead when he fired a shot at the near post, only for Talbot to parry it away.
A few minutes later Deyan Iliev came to our rescue in goal, denying Luke Molyneux from close range.
Akpom doubled our lead late on, knocking the ball in from close range to round off the scoring and seal the win.
WHAT IT MEANS
Victory sees us rise to third in the table, leapfrogging West Ham and now sat behind Everton on goal difference. Following Liverpool’s loss at Derby, we are now just three points off the league leaders.
WHAT’S NEXT
Up next for Gatting’s side is a trip to our north London rivals Tottenham, who are 10th in the PL 2 table, having not picked up a win in four games.
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