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Arsenal’s first team are flying. Top of the Premier League, top of the Champions League, Mikel Arteta’s side are in formidable form.
But travel just a few pitches across their training base at London Colney and the picture changes dramatically. The contrast between the club’s senior surge and their academy’s alarming run of form is starker than ever.
When the Under 19s beat Bayern Munich 4-2 in the UEFA Youth League on Wednesday, it snapped a 16-game winless streak across the Under 18s, 19s and 21s.
It’s a strange anomaly for a club that has pumped significant investment into its youth infrastructure and has reaped the rewards with players such as Bukayo Saka (24), Myles Lewis-Skelly (19), Ethan Nwaneri (18) and Max Dowman (15) integrated into the first-team squad in recent years.
But talent and results in the academy are not lining up. The Under 19s sit 30th out of 36 teams in the Youth League, the junior version of the Champions League, and are all but knocked out of the competition.
They face Club Bruges in their final match in two weeks’ time needing to win and overturn a goal difference deficit of 11 to finish in the top 22 and make the next round.
Arsenal academy star Max Dowman, who scored a magical solo goal against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Youth League on Wednesday, has been a success story from the academy
Myles Lewis-Skelly, 19, also came through the Gunners academy and burst on to the scene last season, rising all the way up into the England senior squad
For a club with a proud academy history - think Tony Adams, Ashley Cole, Jack Wilshere - the optics are uncomfortable. All three academy teams mirror elements of the first-team style: a high line, a proactive press, full backs stepping into midfield. But the gap between concept and execution appears to be widening.
Inconsistent pressing has been a major issue. Arsenal’s press often starts with good intentions from the striker or No 10, but the second line is late arriving to help out. Opponents are then consistently playing through the first wave and exploiting the space in the midfield.
This has led to pressure on the back four - and some of the defenders have been unable to cope with the physicality of their opponents.
This problem is paired with the full backs, who are encouraged to invert into midfield when the team is in possession - just like Arteta’s side. But senior players know exactly when to invert, while those in the youth setup can move too early and be caught out.
In the second half of their 4-3 loss against Atletico Madrid last month, the Under 19s were under the cosh each time the visitors reached midfield. Atletico were able to cut through the middle quite easily after breaching that first line.
In Wednesday’s match against Bayern, it was a similar story in the first half. Thankfully Dowman came to the rescure with two goals, and his glorious solo effort in stoppage time to seal the win went viral on social media.
Sources close to the academy all point to a repeated theme of physicality. Arsenal’s youth sides play with technical assurance, but opponents are overpowering them too easily.
Academy coach David Horseman bluntly told the club’s website: ‘The goals we’re giving away at the moment are so soft, I think it’s going to be a struggle to win games. But that doesn’t mean you can’t produce players.’
Ethan Nwaneri is another Arsenal academy product and holds the record for being the youngest Premier League player
His younger brother Emerson is in the academy and there are high hopes for his future
Horseman’s comment about ‘soft goals’ is a diplomatic way of saying defenders are not coping physically or being aggressive enough in duels. Goals are coming from second balls or crosses where Arsenal are failing to win headers. This was evident in the 5-1 defeat by Slavia Prague, the Czech team consistently winning their battles and scoring twice from set-pieces.
The disconnect between results and development lies at the heart of Arsenal’s youth strategy. The club has long prioritised individual progression over age-group trophies. For them, playing in the style of the men’s team is more important than results.
But even within that philosophy, a run this barren invites scrutiny - and soft goals signal more than bad luck. Arsenal have doubled down on producing technical midfielders at age-group level, which can lead to a lack of strength in the team.
A drive for more defensive-minded young players would help. So would exposure to senior football.
Looking at some of the Gunners’ European opponents, their youth sides play against men regularly. Take Olympiacos, for example, whose reserve side are in the Greek second tier. That exposure for their best young players is priceless when it comes to development and physical readiness.
Part of the internal assessment at Arsenal is that the academy is encouraged to accelerate the development of the club’s best players, Nwaneri and Dowman recent examples of prospects who were quickly moved into older age groups, then the first team. Dowman made his debut for the Under 21s aged just 14.
It benefits their long-term prospects, yes, but it can hollow out the squads they leave behind. One source tells Daily Mail Sport: ‘If you look at Chido Obi (now at Manchester United), Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly, they are first-team footballers. That’s what this is about: creating one or two from the current batch who can then make that transition to the men’s game. The rest could well be released in the end, but that’s academy football for you.’
It can be argued that, in the long run, this produces better Arsenal players. With their Youth League campaign having already gone awry, Horseman selected a squad for Bayern featuring six schoolboys, including Angelinou Pedro, 15, and 13-year-old Luis Munoz, the youngest player in the history of the competition when he came off the bench. He was born in December 2011, three months after Arteta joined the club as a player.
The trade-off, however, is becoming increasingly visible in the league tables. None of this casts doubt on the youth setup’s ability to produce talent - the flow of prospects into senior football remains healthy.
Angelinou Pedro, 15, was also in the Arsenal side that played against the Germans
'The goals we’re giving away at the moment are so soft, I think it’s going to be a struggle to win games,' said Arsenal academy coach David Horseman recently
In fact, the Gunners believe their current Under 16s crop at Hale End is one of the most gifted in recent years. It is the cohort featuring Emerson Nwaneri -brother of Ethan - along with Pedro and Kyran Thompson, a trio who have already drawn attention. Centre back Pedro started for the Under 18s in last weekend’s 3-3 draw with Norwich.
More broadly, the academy has also been a vehicle to make money which can then be reinvested into the first-team squad and keep the club in line with the Premier League's financial rules. In the summer of 2024, Arsenal sold graduates Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah for fees of £34million and £30m respectively.
But Arsenal now must decide whether the gap between first team and academy results is a natural product of the development cycle or a hint at the need to address such shortcomings.
The pressure for the academy to continue nurturing gems like Saka, Dowman and Nwaneri for the first team will continue, and Arsenal’s pathway remains rich with promise. They will keep producing stars. The question is whether the academy can tighten its structure quickly enough to ensure the results match its reputation.
