Saka At The Double But Arsenal Fail To Qualify For UEFA Youth League

Published: May 08, 2019

Arsenal will not be competing in next season's UEFA Youth League after they were beaten 5-2 by Derby County in the U18 Premier League national final on Tuesday.

With the Gunners set to miss out on the top four positions in the Premier League, their U19 team would have still booked their ticket to the UEFA Youth League if the U18s beat Southern Division champions, Derby County in yesterday's showpiece at the Pride Park Stadium.

And because of the importance of the fixture, the likes of Xavier Amaechi, Bukayo Saka and James Olayinka were called up to strengthen the U18 team.

Saka gave Arsenal a dream start, beating goalkeeper Samuel French from 20 yards to open the scoring after four minutes, but it was the home team who were 3-1 up at the break thanks to goals from Brown (2) and Whittaker.

Brown got his hat-trick to make it 4-1 in the 66th minute, before Saka pulled a goal back on 82 minutes.

Derby County's Festy Ebosele is on international duty with the Republic of Ireland at the ongoing U17 EURO and wasn't involved, Saka played the full game, Amaechi started and was in action for 75 minutes while Olayinka was introduced at half-time.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : arsenal.com