A round up of the best action from last nights NextGen Series clashes involving Arsenal and Aston Villa
Arsenal got their debut NextGen series off to a flying start with a resounding 3-0 victory over Marseille. The French side showed little threat as Arsenal dominated possession with Swedish midfielder Kristoffer Olsson control the pace and tempo of the game. Arsenal had several chances in the opening exchanges but it was Nico Yennaris who finally gave them the lead with a neat close range finish after great work on the left wing from Chuba Akpom in the eighth minute.
Akpom then missed a header from close range but made amends moments later by doubling the Gunners lead. The impressive Serge Gnabry used his speed to good effect, swallowing up a loose pass, before delivering to the unmarked Akpom who poked home from close range after just 20 minutes.
Arsenal continued to dominate until half time and after the interval was no different with a very impressive performance from Hector Bellerin at right back becoming one of the highlights of the Arsenal performance. Stuart Moore was a spectator for the majority of the game as any chances Marseille mustered seemed to go well wide or well high. Arsenal continued to dominate possession and got the third and final goal with ten minutes remaining; Kristoffer Olsson’s scything pass was gobbled up by Chuba Akpom who drove the ball into the far corner to cap a brilliant display from the Young Gunners.
Here are some tweets from the triumphant Gunners…
Beat marseille in next gen 3-0 got 1 assist and 2 goals , great performance by the lads, support was amazing, thanks to everyone#AFC
Game done won 3-0 good performance from the team today. Happy to get on the score sheet. Thanks to every1 that supported us get home safe !
Martin Yves Angha @MartinYAngha
Good 3-0 win V Marseille tonight! Great experiance! Well dont boys good team performance! Excited about the next game! #AFC#NextGen
Even more senior players showed their appreciation…
Conor Henderson @Henderson_91
Next Gen team is popping it! #SnapCrackle
Arsenal now joins Athletic Bilbao on 3 points in Group 6.
Meanwhile Aston Villa are still searching for their first NextGen points after going down 1-0 to PSV in Holland. Villa struggled with PSV’s possession game in the first half and conceded a goal to Geraldo Antonio’s strike in the 34th minute, and despite a better 2nd half performance they could not find that elusive goal. Following an opening day defeat to Sporting; Villa find themselves bottom of the group with 0 points from 2 games and will need a result against Celtic in September if they are to stay in the competition.
Jack Grealish was upset with the defeat…
Got beat 1-0 by psv, gutted 🙁 ! So pissed of I cant watch el classico either arrr
images: © wonker, © Ronnie Macdonald
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