I was going to call this ‘The Kids From 47A’ – but I strongly suspect only a few of us would realise why…

Allezkev went to watch a young Arsenal side face Boreham Wood yesterday at Meadow Park and he’s very kindly given us all his view on the players who hope to have a future with us.

Boreham Wood, play in the Blue Square South and have a very tidy ground with a capacity of around 5,000 but yesterday saw a crowd in the region of 450/500 turn out, nearly all of them wearing Arsenal shirts.

Terry Burton was missing Thomas Eisfeld, who had been called up to the squad to tour Asia, so winger Anthony Jeffrey replaced him in the squad.

Ebecilio, Monteiro, Angha & Meade made up the back-four in front of Martinez. Hajrovic & Henderson sat in front of the back-four, with Watt as the lone striker supported by Rees, Olsson and Akpom.

The 1st 45 was disappointing from an Arsenal point of view. B’wood turned a below par AFC defence several times, very easily, with just a long ball over the top and took the lead when ‘old boy’ Omer Riza lost his marker and smartly headed in a cross past the stranded Martinez.

Martinez had to be on his toes to make two crucial saves to prevent the scoreline becoming embarrassing.

Henderson’s long goalbound free-kick, deflected for a corner was the closest the AFC XI came to scoring in the first half, although Watt should have done better when through on goal but his sloppy control allowed a B’wood defender the time to recover and take the ball away.

Olsson was the stand-out AFC player in the 1st 45 for me.

B’wood seemed stronger physically and quicker to the ball as the AFC lads over elaborated their passing game. (ring any bells)

HT 1-0

Terry Burton made only 3 changes at half-time, but all significant as he re-jigged the line-up.

Shea came on for Martinez in goal.

Boateng replaced Monteiro.

Wynter replaced Rees.

Both Boateng and Wynter are monsters, but skilful with it.

Angha moved to right-back, Ebecilio back into his more usual midfield.

Hajrovic dropped in alongside Boateng whilst Wynter sat in front of the back four but the most telling switch was putting Akpom up front with Watt dropping deep.

I also sensed that Arsenal went a bit more direct and cut out some of the endless passing.

Akpom was causing all kinds of problems for B’wood, and it was he who was fouled in the box for the equaliser. Watt calmly slotted home the subsequent penalty.

Wynter & Boateng more or less stopped any threat reaching Shea whilst a confident Arsenal pushed for more goals.

Ebecilio & Henderson were replaced by Roberts & Jeffrey. Jeffrey proceeded to terrorise the B’wood right back. Yet another speedy left-winger.

Bihmoutine & Bellerin replaced Meade & Angha.

Akpom scored a well-earned goal from another penalty, then Olssen scored a cracker. After dribbling past 3 or 4 B’wood defenders he calmly, Vela’esque like, lifted the ball over the keeper and into the net. Jeffrey hit the post in the last-minute after a mazy run..

A very useful run-out, aiding match sharpness.

Olsson, Akpom, Boateng, Jeffrey and Wynter all looked excellent prospects to me and Hajrovic, Meade and Martinez did well.

Both Gnabry and Toral are injured.

Olsson is 17
Jeffrey 17
Wynter 18
Akpom is still only 16
Martinez 19
Boateng 19

If you want to know any more about these young players, then follow the link here

Stevenage next, and they’ll be a tougher nut to crack.

Written by Allezkev

Just the one titbit – The Sun claim that Robin van Persie is demanding £10.1million a year for his signature this summer.

Really, is any club honestly going to pay him that kind of money??

Wenger on any future transfers:

We are still looking to add one or two players but it depends also on how many go out because we have to respect the squad number.

He does go onto say that departures will determine just how many signings we need/make – so best he and Ivan get to work on clearing the deadwood..

That’s it, have a good day all…..