Arsenal boss demands more from his players in The Final.
Arsenal |
4-1 |
Manchester City |
Watt 1, 31, Wilshere 20 (pen), Bartley 29 |
(6-2 on agg) |
Benali 45 |
The FA Youth Cup, sponsored by E.ON
Semi-Final Second Leg
Wednesday 22 April 2009
7pm, Emirates Stadium, Arsenal FC
Despite securing their place in The Final with a 4-1 win and a 6-2 aggregate victory over Manchester City, Arsenal’s youth team coach Steve Bould insists his team will have to show improvement if they are to progress and win the competition.
The young Gunners raced into a four goal lead at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening with a 2-1 lead from the first leg already in place and Bould was not pleased with his charges showing an element of complacency after that their earlier good work.
"We need to produce world class players at this club now if they're going to get in our first team, so the standards can't drop,” he said.
"I wasn't particularly pleased at full-time, as the lads didn't play at the level they have set themselves.
"We had to guard against complacency and the first goal after a minute set the tone, but after going 4-0 up we did become a bit complacent.
“I understand that it's difficult not to, but I wasn't really that happy with the performance so the result tonight was a massive bonus.”
In fact, after Arsenal had completed their scoring for the night, City could consider themselves unfortunate not to have scored more than the one consolation goal which Ahmad Benali netted with Gunners goalkeeper James Shea kept busy throughout the game.
"To be four goals up after 20 minutes or so, the game is dead but I thought they (City) had a right go for the following hour or so and probably should've scored a few more goals,” admitted Bould.
"James Shea was probably our best player tonight and when you've won 4-1, that doesn't sound quite right.
"But when you're not playing so well, it's great to win games and I think the kids have got a bit of character about them.”
Arsenal will now face either Liverpool or Birmingham City in The Final, which is also played over two legs. That tie is decided at Anfield on Friday evening, with Liverpool holding a 3-0 advantage following the first game at St.Andrews last week.
