I think that Unai Emery has made a very sensible decision to take a planeload of Arsenal’s best youngsters to Kiev for tonight’s game against Vorskla, and whatever the result it will be a brilliant experience for everyone involved.
Of course there are some that are experienced, like Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah, but Emery pinpointed some others that are likely to make their debuts this evening. “We have a big responsibility with young players,” he said. “At Arsenal, every year we are working very well with young players.
“When there are matches like Thursday’s in a very big week for us, where we are playing a lot of matches, we have players to cover here. We need to give them chances.
“They are working with us in all the sessions and also in pre-season. They are coming with us because we can give them chances tomorrow and also because we would prefer for some players to not do this long travelling. We prefer for them to stay in London working for the next match on Sunday.
“The Europa League is very important for us and it’s very important for us to win on Thursday and come first in this group. The young players are going to have chances.
“Then you know that some players like Eddie Nketiah, like Willock, like Emile Smith Rowe, have played. Then other younger players are coming through with us like Bukayo, Dominic, Zech and Charlie. For us, it’s not different because they are working with us every day.”
The other youngsters to fly are Charlie Gilmour, Zech Medley, the goalkeeper Dejan Iliev, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Dominic Thompson, Tyreece John-Jules and Bukayo Saka. Henrik Mhkitaryan has gone over and will probably be the captain but whoever gets some game-time tonight , it will cetainly be interesting!
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