Per Mertesacker inspires Arsenal youth team to win over Chelsea | OneFootball

Arsenal u18 head coach Adam Birchall has revealed that Per Mertesacker gave the team an inspiring talk before Tuesday’s win over Chelsea.

Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

The Arsenal u18s suffered a disappointing defeat away to Tottenham Hotspur over the weekend, losing the match despite scoring four goals.

Andre Harriman-Annous’ opener and a Dan Casey hat-trick ensured Arsenal were always in the contest, but Spurs capitalised on some lax defending to ultimately win the game 6-4 – with their sixth coming after Arsenal were reduced to 10 men.

It was important for the team to bounce back against Chelsea on Tuesday, and they managed to do just that.

Photo via Zecevic-John on Instagram

Louis Zecevic-John made his return from a brief injury absence to provide an assist against Spurs, and he carried on that form by opening the scoring on Tuesday morning.

The winger fired home a first-time finish for 1-0, and it wasn’t long until Arsenal need him again. With Chelsea equalising three minutes later, Zecevic-John stepped up for a second time and assisted Josh Ogunnaike for 2-1 moments afterwards.

Chelsea had another chance to equalise in the 50th minute, but Ollie Harrison’s penalty was saved by Khari Ranson. An own goal from Olutayo Subuloye increased Arsenal’s advantage 11 minutes later.

The hosts did manage to pull back another goal through Chizaram Ezenwata in the 80th minute, but Arsenal saw out their lead to earn all three points.

Photo via Arsenal.com

After the game, coach Adam Birchall explained that former Gunner and current academy manager Per Mertesacker had helped to inspire the side to victory.

“I think we had a meeting yesterday where Per was involved in it and Per gave us some real inspirational words and some real good feedback and he was in our thoughts a lot today heading into this game,” Birchall revealed.

“So, super pleased with the personality the lads showed and absolutely we spoke about that.”

Photo via Ranson on Instagram

The Arsenal u18s sit seventh in the u18 Premier League, but with their games in hand they’re still capable of catching the teams in first, second, third, fifth, and sixth.

Only fourth-place Aston Villa (six points ahead having played the same number of games) need to drop points if Arsenal want to overtake them.

The team face ninth-place Leicester City next, on March 15th, before playing title-hopefuls Villa on March 29th after the international break.