Chris Willock stole all the headlines tonight as Arsenal’s U21 side beat Blackburn 2-1.
Tonight marked the return to action for key first-team star Santi Cazorla, who has been out injured since November, but it was not his name who stole the headlines, as one of the club’s future stars laid a marker down.
An 18 year-old Willock has been trending on Twitter following his brace, which left his Under-21 side three points away from earning promotion to the top division. The left-winger has been training with the first-team squad for much of the campaign, and despite making the first-team’s bench on two occasions, is yet to make his senior debut.
Willock has was only last month spoken highly of by Arsene Wenger, when he highlighted the youngster for praise.
The French boss said: “We have many players with big quality. The guys that are with me now like Chris Willock who is very impressive, Jeff Reine-Adelaide is with us on a daily basis, Reiss Nelson is with us also.’
The young star lined up alongside experienced players Calum Chambers, Cazorla and Tomas Rosicky in the bid to secure promotion to the reserve top league.
The latter duo are nearing a return to first-team action, with the Spaniard making the bench for Arsenal’s last Premier League match with Norwich, but was not selected to enter the field of play.
Santi will no doubt be eager to feature in the remaining league fixtures, in hope of securing his role in the Spain squad for the upcoming European Championships. Rosicky will likely sit out the weekend’s encounter with Manchester City however, but I expect him to be allowed to feature against Aston Villa in the final league outing, in order to receive a welcome goodbye from the fans as his contract runs out following that match.
Could Willock be the next Iwobi? Can Santi make the difference against Man City?
Will like to see Jeff Reine adelaide get a chance of making the first team next season!
Happens once in a blue moon…
Sometimes Arsenal injuries are a blessing in disguise…. Look how we rediscovered Le coq……iwobi……bellerin….campbell
but honestly, sometimes this idea of wishing most of these players from the youth set-up are incorporated into the 1st team may just be a contributive means to not getting the more established/ready-made players out ere!
when you make comment on this site people react has if where you come from appear to make you dum.What i was saying. islevandoski don’t do much on is own.he get a lot of good service playing for Bayern Munich.on playing for arsenal he would not get a lot of opportunity because of the way we play.i think giroud is rubbish but if he gets better service he would score a lot more goals.look at Benzema when he play for Madrid on when he play for France
Interesting, so you don’t watch the arsenal much?
We’ve score the least amount of goals of the top5, yet created more chances than any other team.
What you also forget, with a donkey upfront, defenders can sit higher up the pitch, thus congesting the middle field which is the strongest part of our team.
Happens once in a blue moon…
Sometimes Arsenal injuries are a blessing in disguise…. Look how we rediscovered Le coq……iwobi……bellerin….campbell
but honestly, sometimes this idea of wishing most of these players from the youth set-up are incorporated into the 1st team may just be a contributive means to not getting the more established/ready-made players out ere!
And did that make a difference ? Nope, Wenger keeps them on the bench for the likes of Giroud and Walcott and the injuries of important players came at the cost of our title challenge.
much as i have criticised wenger , it must be said that the players too have to shoulder a big chunk of the blame 2015-16. he believed in them and they gave him back nothing. giroud, i dont blame too much, he’s just limited in his capacity; he tries his hardest and gets what he can get (still doesnt mean we should keep him). but walcott – walcott i believe just doesnt give his best any more. he disappointed me the most. ox was the 2nd most disappointing: he hit the woodwork many times, but there just doesnt seem to be a higher gear for him. we should loan him out to where he can play every week w/o the kind of pressure that comes from playing for arsenal.
Soopa, that’s how kids get there chances in a top side, through injury. A manager isn’t going to have a full line up and say do ya know what, I’m going to stick the 19 year old in and see what happens. They get a shot every now and then either through injury or in the lesser cup comps. And they need to grab it. When they grab it it is because they deserved it, and they proved the manager right for seeing something in them.
Chris willock will be Like a New signing then
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He’s a left winger? He has his trouble cut out for him. Adelaide and Willock, doubtful both would get promoted in the one season. Should have probably groomed him more for CF role, he could get a shot in there. Unless he is being groomed for CF and this is the RVP Titi treatment before becoming a striker. I always thought he was a striker.
Wingers are going to have it difficult breaking into the Arsenal set up, almost every midfielder we have can play wing.
@Trevor, I think Wenger prefers to start every forward player on the wing whether they are strikers or not. It’s all part of his apprenticeship program.
ADMIN COMMENT – Paul that comment was excellent and worthy of an article in its own right.
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