Mehmet Ali was pleased with the determination and mentality shown by our under-21s in their 2-2 draw away to Crystal Palace on Monday night.
The Eagles had the lead at half-time thanks to Zach Marsh’s close-range finish, but we struck back in the second half through Michal Rosiak and Salah Oulad M’Hand.
Hindolo Mustapha equalised for the home side, and although we dominated the remainder of the game, Palace held out for a point.
On the performance…
“I thought it was a really good game. We knew Palace had a strong side when we saw their line-up come out but I thought our boys responded really well to that and that’s what we asked for from them.
“I thought we were really brave, I loved some of our defending! We went 1 - 0 down from a set piece which was disappointing and then in the second half I thought we dominated the game and got into some really good areas.
“We went 2-1 up and then the timing of the goal for them killed us a little bit really and we should’ve been a little bit more mature at that moment, I think we smelled blood and we were going for them, we just need to get some more passes at that stage of the game.
“They scored a very good transition goal and then again at 2-2 I think it could’ve gone either way but I thought we had the better chances and on another night we get the winner, but really proud of the boys’ performance.”
On pushing for the win in tight games…
“That’s the Arsenal identity! If you’re going to play for Arsenal, that’s our mindset and that’s been instilled in the players from Hale End all the way to where they are now.
“We go for our opponents, we go to win the game and you definitely saw us trying to do that this evening.”
On our young centre-back pairing…
“You never know when you’re going to be chucked into U21s football and I thought both of them (Brayden Clarke and Sam Onyekachukwu) did really well. Some of the older lads just gave Chuks a round of applause, making his U21s debut, as well as all of the lads.
“I thought everyone really showed a good appetite to go and take the game to Palace and that’s why I love working with these guys.”
On the final four games of the season…
“Every game we’ve got, let’s perform as best as we can! These guys show that every day in training, keep competing, and see really the older boys go and enjoy their journeys.
“We had Taylor Foran who used to be an Arsenal player watching us tonight who used to be an Arsenal player which was great, we had Zane Monlouis in the changing rooms there, he’s just flown back from Toronto and going back out in two days to go on his new adventure so I wish that for all our senior boys to go and play men’s football.
“And for the younger ones, keep pushing, looking to get into the first team or get a career from the game.”
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