Arsenal U18s travel to Norwich’s Colney Training Centre on Saturday as they seek consecutive wins at this level for only the second time this season.
While Arsenal have been very inconsistent of late, they come into the game 5th in the table and could go above West Ham into 4th with victory this weekend. On the contrary, Norwich have been very consistent; just not in the good way. They lie 11th out of the 12 teams in the division, and have lost seven of their opening 12 games, conceding 27 goals and scoring just 11 in that time.
Donyell Malen hit a hat-trick last week as Arsenal beat Reading 4-3 and will be hoping to continue his good form. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Reiss Nelson has also played excellently of late and should keep his place in the starting eleven after also notching against Reading. The winger has impressed with his pace and trickery this season, and showed another side to his game last week when he produced several incisive through balls, including one that led to Malen’s fine first goal.
Also in attack, Ismael Bennacer could return to the line-up after he scored a fine equaliser against Bayern Munich in midweek. While the summer signing from Arles-Avignon struggled during his first team debut against Sheffield Wednesday, his performances so far at youth level have been very good. If he can add more end product to his game, Bennacer may well find more first team call-ups coming his way.
Another Arsenal change could be in central midfield- Vlad Dragomir may return from international duty with the Romania U17s, and if fit should replace Marcus Tabi in central midfield.
As for Norwich, they come into this game on the back of a 7-0 thrashing against top of the table Chelsea, in which they conceded four goals in 18 minutes. If Arsenal can continue their excellent recent form in front of goal, they could well return to north London with all three points.
