Hale End stars send Mikel Arteta a timely message amid Arsenal’s injury crisis

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Arsenal’s U21 side welcomed Middlesbrough U21 to Meadow Park as they clashed in the Premier League 2.

Arsenal included academy stars that went on the Dubai trip including Charles Sagoe Jr and Josh Nichols but there was no place in the team for Max Dowman.

Mehmet Ali’s side eventually ran out 2-1 winners to move up to 10th in the Premier League 2 table with a late winner from Michal Rosiak.

Sagoe Jr staked his claim for a chance in the Arsenal first team with a pinpoint cross for the winning goal and another Hale End star opened the scoring to send a timely message to boss Mikel Arteta.

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Khayon Edwards scores in Arsenal U21 win over Middlesbrough

After injuries to Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz, it has been suggested that Arteta may call upon academy stars to replace the injured duo.

One of those players is U21 striker Khayon Edwards and the forward showed Arteta what he can do with a fine finish during the win over Middlesbrough.

Composure is something that has been lacking in some of Arsenal’s finishing this season, therefore a Khayon Edwards profile could be just what Arteta is looking for.

There are sure to be opportunities for the Arsenal academy players in the coming weeks as Arsenal look to battle through their injury crisis.

Arteta enjoying finding Arsenal solution to striker problems

Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of Leicester City v Arsenal, Arteta explained how he was enjoying trying to find creative solutions to the Gunners’ injury problems.

Arteta stated: “Yes because I don’t want to look, I understand the narrative. If any team in this league lost four players in the frontline like those, I know what the answer would be – I don’t even want to mention that.

“We’ve been through a lot and we have sustained the level of performance and results until this point, so we are more than capable of doing it. That’s the only thing that we’re going to be looking at.”

With crunch games ahead in the Premier League and Champions League, it will be of no surprise that some of the academy talent start to appear in Arteta’s squad and may even be required to come on and try and impact a game.

It is asking a lot of the youngsters to come in and make a difference however, every career has to begin somewhere and sometimes you just need a little bit of fortune going your way.