Arsenal Under-21 have come back from a losing position for the third straight match after beating Swansea U21 this evening.
There was extra attention on tonight’s fixture after it was confirmed that all of Cedric Soares, Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira were all to start, but that didn’t help us get off to a bright start.
The J Thomas duo combined inside the opening 15 minutes to break the deadlock, but their lead was short-lived when Lino Sousa played in Joel Ideho to find the equaliser. Just as we did at the weekend, we found ourselves overturning the early deficit to lead at the break when Cedric Soares bagged himself the goal, and he eventually played out the full 90 minutes as he looks to build up his match fitness.
Both Smith Rowe and Vieira were only allowed to play until the interval however as they look to get somewhere close to 100%, with the former also coming off the bench late on for Arsenal v Leicester at the weekend if only for around five minutes.
Neither side was able to score in the second half meaning that our U21 side move top of the Premier League Cup group.
Patrick
The game was free to watch on Arsenal.com and Cedric’s goal was a bit special.
Good fist half, drab second. Watched it to see Vieira’s debut – some nice touches but you can see he’s rusty. Some careless mistakes and not as involved as he would like, so this run-out was much needed. I can’t see him getting more than a few minutes at Bournemouth until his match-fitness and acclimatisation are further along.
At times the defending was really dire, leading to the Swansea goal, but they played the same way the first team do with good passing and movement. Both ESR and Viera looked a cut above everybody else. Taylor Foran looks a big tough CB.