The Arsenal U21s faced one of their darkest days as they lost 7-0 against Liverpool.
The Gunners’ academy has been in the news a lot recently after it was announced that Per Mertesacker would be leaving the club.
The German did a very good job at Hale End behind the scenes, but his departure signals a change in direction for the youth setup.
However, in their first game back in the Premier League 2, the Arsenal U21s were humiliated.
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Emerson Nwaneri breaks Ethan Nwaneri’s record as Arsenal U21s lose 7-0 to Liverpool
The Arsenal U21s haven’t had a great season at all.
Max Porter’s side have won just four of their first 12 games in all competitions and are currently 20th in the Premier League 2.
On Saturday, in their first game of the year, the Arsenal youngsters faced Liverpool and got absolutely hammered.
The Gunners were 2-0 down after six minutes and conceded two more before the break. Liverpool then scored three goals in the second half to seal a 7-0 win.
This was the Arsenal U21s’ worst defeat in the history of the Premier League 2, which is simply not good enough.
However, in some more positive news, Emerson Nwaneri, brother of Ethan Nwaneri, became the youngest player in the Gunners’ history to start a game for the U21s.
At 15 years and 152 days, the younger Nwaneri broke the record set by his own brother, who was 16 days older when he made his first-ever start.
READ MORE: Per Mertesacker explains why Arsenal U19s are 33rd in Europe right now and he has a point
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Arsenal’s academy has been hailed for producing incredible young players in recent years.
The likes of Bukayo Saka, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Max Dowman and Nwaneri are all among the best players of their age in the world.
However, collectively, the Arsenal Academy sides have been underperforming, and that is down to very poor planning behind the scenes.
Many of the players who play for the U21s are still eligible to play for the younger age groups, which means the pool of players for that level is not big enough.
That, combined with Arsenal’s management of players who are good but not good enough to make it to the first team, needs massive improvement very soon.
It will be interesting to see who will get Mertesacker’s job once he leaves.
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