Arsenal U18s ended a run of four games without victory on Saturday as a Donyell Malen hat-trick helped them to a thrilling 4-3 win over Reading at London Colney.
Reiss Nelson underlined his undeniable talent with another goal after notching against Aston Villa last week, and will hope to be involved when the Arsenal U19s travel to Bayern Munich on Wednesday to try and continue their perfect record in the UEFA Youth League so far.
A major surprise in the Arsenal team was the return of Yassin Fortune to the starting eleven just two days after France were knocked out of the U17 World Cup in Chile. The striker replaced Ismael Bennacer, who was predictably given a rest after playing in the League Cup in midweek. Elsewhere, Nathan Tella replaced Jordi Osei-Tutu at right-back and Ilias Chatzitheodoridis came in at left-back, with Tolaji Bola reverting to centre-back and Kostas Pileas dropped to the bench.
Reading convincingly won 4-1 won the sides met back in August but it was Arsenal who took an early lead here. After a good passing move, Aaron Eyoma was denied by the Reading goalkeeper from Nelson’s through ball but the man who played the pass was there quickly to turn in the rebound via the crossbar.
With half an hour gone, Nelson could have doubled his tally but shot wide from Malen’s cutback. Moments later though, Arsenal did score a second. Nelson brilliantly controlled Ryan Huddart’s long kick under pressure and played a superb ball to Malen, who showed great composure to check inside a Reading defender before shooting low into the net to make it 2-0.
However, Arsenal have made a habit of conceding sloppy goals at this level, and it was no different just four minutes later. A cross was allowed to go all the way through the Arsenal penalty area before being shot against the crossbar by Tyler Frost, with Ryan East turning in from close range to halve the deficit.
Just seconds into the start of the second half, Arsenal’s two-goal lead was restored. Dreadful miscontrol in the Reading defence from a simple long ball allowed Malen to race clear and he made no mistake with a decisive finish across Luke Southwood.
The game took another turn on 70 minutes when Reading scored twice in 2 minutes to equalise. First Sam Smith was given too much space to control and finish from a low cross, then Kristopher Da Graca’s clumsy challenge on Smith gave Reading a penalty. Josh Barrett scored from 12 yards and the visitors had parity.
But it was to be Malen who had the final word. With three minutes to go, he found himself in space in the penalty area from Eyoma’s pass and squeezed in a shot at the near post to complete his hat-trick and give Arsenal all 3 points.
