Under-21s head coach Mehmet Ali was pleased with our second half performance in Monday night’s 1-0 win away to Stoke City in Premier League 2.
The Potters made life difficult for us in the first half, but our perseverance paid off with a 96th minute winner from August’s Player of the Month, Nathan Butler-Oyedeji.
“It was a tough game, so credit to our opponent,” Mehmet said. “I thought in the first half they probably performed better than us. They had more goal attempts and were aggressive in high press. If we did get out of that they defended deep really well. It cause us quite a few problems and weren’t smooth and didn’t really get a rhythm. I felt our players took too many touches at times, the ball was turned over a lot and it wasn’t the game we wanted or planned for.
“Having said that, in the second half we really upped it, got into better areas and had more goal attempts. We got a winner with the last kick of the game, which was great for Nathan. I’m really pleased for the lads to win the game and pleased with the second half performance.”
It’s been a busy period for the academy, with the under-19s travelling to Atalanta last week to begin their UEFA Youth League campaign.
“It’s been a challenge, but if they’re going to be top professional footballers they’ve got to be able to deal, adapt and cope with it while still performing at a high level,” Mehmet added. “Credit to our staff as well, Max Porter is leading that and he’s done an unbelievable job with the process he’s put in place.
“The lads had really good exposure this week with plenty of football to be played. There’s a game on Wednesday and I’m hoping some of our lads can get the opportunity and take it, and then there’s another PL2 game on Friday, so plenty of football to play.”
There was plenty of pride among academy staff when Myles Lewis-Skelly came on for his Premier League debut in the first team’s 2-2 draw away to Manchester City on the weekend, and Mehmet was keen to praise the efforts of all of our youngsters who have been involved in Mikel Arteta’s squad of late.
“They have to train well with the first team and get buy-in from the first team players,” he said. “They’ve got to impress Mikel and they’ve done that. I’m really proud of those boys because every day they turn up they’ve got an elite mindset. To represent Arsenal is an unbelievable honour. We’re so thankful for our first team, who don’t gift opportunities easily, and it should be like that. They’ve got to earn it and deserve it so it’s even sweeter when they do get on the pitch. I’m gutted that we conceded so late but I’m so proud of Myles, Ethan and all of the boys who have been in and around the first team, as well as all of these boys because we support them really well.
“We’ve got a really strong relationship and we try to align things as much as possible and I think that is really beneficial for Arsenal as a football club and everything we try to strive for.”
Next up, attention turns to the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, the third round tie against Bolton Wanderers potentially providing the opportunity for Mikel to take a look at players from the academy under the lights in front of a sold out Emirates Stadium.
“They just have to be ready,” Mehmet said. “They might get it, they might not get it. Our first team have been brilliant at supporting our younger players with one-to-one information, putting their arm around their shoulder when they need it but also getting onto them when they need it.”
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
