Arsenal’s under-21 side continued their unbeaten start to the season with a hard-earned 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Emirates Stadium this evening.
Ryo Miyaichi, who was an unused substitute for the first-team a day previously, opened the scoring in the first-half and set up substitute Austin Lipman for the winning goal, either side of Wolves finding the net through Tim Jakobsson.
It was not the most fluent overall performance from Arsenal, who started the game with Ryo deployed as an auxiliary striker, but they were deserved of their victory, with the result all the more impressive given that they were deprived of key players such as Chuba Akpom, Isaac Hayden and Kristoffer Olsson due to a combination of international call-ups and injuries.
Ryo was the only first-team player on show for the Gunners and the Japanese youngster appeared far more confident than he has been in recent weeks, frequently making intelligent runs and laying the ball off for his team-mates. Arsenal saw much of the ball early on without creating too many clear cut opportunities, but eventually took the lead when Ryo finished well from a corner.
Wolves levelled on the stroke of half-time, however, through Jakobsson’s header, and the visitors came close to inflicting further damage on Arsenal after the interval. The introduction of Lipman as a 66th minute substitution proved to be a masterstroke, however, as the youngster, who is in a rich vein of goalscoring form, evidently helped to improve the fluency of Arsenal’s play within minutes of his introduction.
Ryo, who moved out to the left flank to accommodate Lipman, found the former England U17 international in space and the substitute did the rest, finishing superbly to restore Arsenal’s lead and score what proved to be the winning goal.
There were a few late scares for the Gunners, particularly when goalkeeper Damian Martinez was almost caught out by a dangerous set-piece in the dying moments, but Arsenal survived and have now recorded three victories and two draws from their opening five league fixtures.
Gatting, and the watching Arsene Wenger, will be mightily pleased with the performances of Ryo and Lipman, but there was much else to be impressed with regarding Arsenal’s performance, with centre-backs Semi Ajayi and Stefan O’Connor, a couple of mistakes aside, playing particularly well. Nico Yennaris, meanwhile, completed over an hour on his return from injury, whilst right-back Hector Bellerin was a constant menace down the right flank with his searing pace and dangerous crosses.
Arsenal’s next U21 fixture sees them travel to face Bolton Wanderers on October 28th.
