Under-18s: Arsenal 2-1 Swansea - How it happened

Our under-18s came from a goal behind to beat 10-man Swansea City 2-1 at London Colney on Saturday.

Trae Coyle and Tyreece John-Jules were both on target as we continued to build momentum ahead of our two-legged FA Youth Cup final against Chelsea at the end of the month.

 

The afternoon did not get off to the best start, though, with the visitors in the ascendancy. Oli Cooper stung Daniel Barden’s palms with a stunning 25-yard strike but Tom Price would get the better of our keeper moments later, smashing into the bottom corner from just outside the box.

 

We fought back, though, and substitute Matt Smith - who had replaced the injured Robbie Burton after just 20 minutes - was unlucky to see his shot cannon off the crossbar following good work by Coyle.

 

Swansea held out to go into half-time a goal ahead, but our fortunes would change after the break. Bukayo Saka breezed past his man on the left-hand side to find Coyle, who effortlessly slotted home inside the box.

 

Now full of momentum, we continued to create wave after wave of attack and Saka would cause the visitors problems once more. Using his pace and power to beat two defenders, he was eventually brought down by Joe Lewis and the referee pointed to the spot.

 

The Swansea captain picked up his second yellow card and John-Jules held his nerve to send Nathan Shepperd the wrong way and our under-18s on the way to three well-earned points.

 

There was one final chance for us to score again, but Xavier Amaechi’s powerful drive struck the foot of the post in the last few minutes.