U18s: Arsenal 2-4 Aston Villa

A Bradley Burrowes hat-trick sealed an impressive 4-2 victory for Aston Villa away at Arsenal in the Under-18 Premier League on Saturday.

A lively encounter saw Markie Meade’s deflected effort send Villa in at the break with the lead, though the tie was flipped on its head shortly after the restart courtesy of goals from Arsenal’s Ceadach O’Neill and Dan Casey.

But Burrowes stole the show in North London, netting a treble in the final 25 minutes of the game to ensure Jimmy Shan’s Young Lions remained three points clear at the top of the Under-18 Premier League South division.

Villa started strongly at the Sobha Reality Training Centre, and almost drew first blood inside the opening two minutes, but for Cam’ron Ismail managing to get in the way of Burrowes’ goal-bound effort. 

Arsenal then grew into the affair, and began carving out chances of their own. Owen Asemota had to be alert in the Villa net to keep O’Neill out, before the forward rattled the woodwork moments later with a free-kick.

Villa maintained control as the game ticked towards half-time, and thought they had taken the lead through Burrowes, however his powerful effort struck the underside of the crossbar and was adjudged to have not crossed the line.

But it did not take Shan’s side much longer to break the deadlock as, with half-time looming, they regained possession deep inside the Arsenal half of the field.

Meade cut inside and pulled the trigger, with a wicked deflection taking his effort out of the reach of Jack Porter in goal to hand Villa the advantage.

The hosts rallied after the restart, and within 18 minutes, had completed a turnaround.

First, the ever-threatening O’Neill beat the offside trap to bring down Max Dowman’s lofted ball into the area. Asemota did well to keep out his initial volley, but could do nothing to stop O’Neill from burying the rebound.

Then, just after the hour mark, Casey’s curling effort capped off a fine, flowing attacking move led by Ismail to put the Gunners into the lead.

Just minutes later, however, the pendulum swung back in favour of the visitors, as Burrowes again levelled proceedings from the penalty spot, sending Porter the wrong way after Samuel Onyekachukwu had hauled down Rodrigo Fortes.

A tense finale ensued, with both sides looking to snatch a would-be late winner heading into the closing stages.

With three minutes of normal time left to play, the fifth goal of the afternoon finally fell the way of the visitors. Woody Burgess’ long ball forward released Burrowes, who twisted and turned inside the Arsenal area before firing home.

The Gunners were then reduced to 10 players as Onyekachukwu was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Elijah Briscoe.

And there was still time for the Young Lions to secure the three points nine minutes into stoppage time, when Jack Wilshire’s side were exposed at the back having thrown bodies forward in search of an equalising goal.  

Briscoe and Meade dispossessed Dowman and combined to play Burrowes in one on one. He made no mistake in hammering past substitute ‘keeper Khari Ranson for his sixth goal of the season, rounding off an impressive display from Shan’s league leaders.