U18s report: Norwich City 1-5 Arsenal

Our young Gunners continued their fine form with a third U18 Premier League South victory in a row, after a 5-1 demolition of Norwich City.

A scintillating first 45 saw us hit four past the home side, as Axel Donczew opened the floodgates before Jaden Maghoma struck twice and Charlie Purdy completed the scoring before the interval.

Ollie Roberson reduced the deficit after the restart but Emerson Nwaneri added a late fifth to ensure we finished on a high and secured another victory to continue our strong September run.

FIRST HALF

We continued our recent trend of starting games quickly and took the lead inside 15 minutes when Donczew picked up the ball on the edge of the box, drove towards goal and expertly found the far corner.

With our foot on the accelerator, we doubled our lead after the half-hour mark through excellent work by Nwaneri, who used close control to weave past a pair of Norwich defenders before sending a wonderful ball across goal for Maghoma to tap home.

Maghoma delivered our third just moments later, after Teshaun Murisa benefitted from good combination play down the left flank, beating two City players before teeing up another simple finish.

Our fourth arrived before the break as Donczew won his duel to venture into the Canaries' box, composed himself and cut the ball back for Purdy, who finished unchallenged.

SECOND HALF

The Norfolk side got one back early in the second half when Kahlil Steele intercepted Daniel McCarron’s pass, worked the ball to the byline and found Roberson in the area, whose shot took a deflection on its way past Charlie Phillips.

In stoppage time, Nwaneri capped off a five-star display in East Anglia, picked out by Luis Munoz following excellent work out wide. A clever feint sent his opponent the wrong way before he smashed the ball into the bottom corner.

WHAT IT MEANS

The result makes it three wins on the bounce and sees us climb to fifth in the table, with 10 points from our opening six games.

WHAT'S NEXT

We return to U18 Premier League Cup action at home to Birmingham City on Saturday, October 10.

Kick-off at the Sobha Realty Training Centre is scheduled for 12pm (UK time).

LINE-UPS

Norwich City XI: Darbyshire-Came, Glossop (Akarakiri 61), Oldfield, Augusto, Munikwa (Leech 61), Collins, Kipa (Crane 45), Duffy, Edwards (Allen 61), Roberson (Goodson 71), Steele (Cork 84).

Subs: Bullen.

Arsenal XI: C.Phillips, Sampang, Abubakar, McCarron (Owusu-Gyasi 76), Stachow, Purdy (Odaji-Ukueku 63), Munoz, Murisa (Yetna 90+2), Maghoma (Bernard 45), Nwaneri, Donczew (B. Phillips 63).

Subs: Lo Presti, van der Straaten.