Arsenal U18s saw their hopes of success in this season’s FA Youth Cup dashed by a well-organised Chelsea side at Emirates Stadium last night. Chelsea, already carrying a 2-1 advantage from the first leg at Stamford Bridge, scored when Charlie Colkett took advantage of some slack defending, and the visiting side were not troubled too often by an Arsenal side that was severely lacking in attacking momentum.
Goalkeeper Josh Vickers had been one of the stars of Arsenal’s run in this competition, and he enhanced his reputation further still with a superb double save to deny Dominic Solanke. Shortly afterwards, however, Vickers made a rare error following disappointing defending from Jack Jebb and Leander Siemann to allow Colkett to score from close range.
Arsenal responded with winger Alex Iwobi exchanging passes with Chuba Akpom, but Iwobi’s subsequent shot lacked conviction and, after that, Chelsea continued to dominate, with centre-back Andreas Christensen marauding forwards and almost finding the net.
Glen Kamara, who was one of the few Arsenal players who really impressed, came close to scoring when his effort was cleared off the line, but Arsenal just couldn’t find a way past the resilient Chelsea defence even after the introductions of Dan Crowley and Austin Lipman.
Chelsea nearly inflicted further damage in the latter stages, but they had already proven their superiority over the course of this tie, with Arsenal having been inferior both tactically and physically.
This was Arsenal’s best run in the competition since they last won it in 2009, but Carl Laraman’s team were unable to play with anything approaching their usual fluidity owing to the constant pressure applied by Chelsea.
Gedion Zelalem performed a little better yesterday following his disappointing showing at Stamford Bridge, but Arsenal were unable to get their most dangerous attacking players in the game for long enough, with Akpom in particular receiving little support up front even when he did get the ball.
Following exits in the latter stages of the UEFA Youth League and the U21 Premier League Cup, Arsenal’s last chance of silverware at youth level this season has now slipped from their grasp. There will be a chance for something resembling revenge when they face Chelsea at U21 level at Emirates Stadium next week, but this was the tie that they had been looking forward to for so long and, when it came down to it, they ultimately failed to deliver.
There have been concerns that Laraman is unable to get the best out of certain players, but the whole side, with the possible exception of Vickers, struggled to play to their full potential over the two legs and Chelsea were quick to take full advantage of any mistakes that were made. Chelsea progress to yet another Youth Cup Final, whilst Arsenal are left to wonder what might have been.
