FA Premier Academy League U17, Sat 8 December 2001
Arsenal 4 Charlton Athletic 1
Arsenal scorers: Birchall 2, O'Donnell, Bradley (pen)

Second defeat of the season for the under-19s allows nearest rivals Tottenham to close the gap at the top of the league to 2 points. Arsenal probably fielded a slightly weaker/younger team than normal as some of the senior U19s were having a training session at Shenley, presumably in preparation for the reserve game at Leicester tonight, with some of the regular reserves presumably travelling to Blackburn tomorrow for the Worthless Cup match.

The under-17s meanwhile had a comfortable win at the training ground against their Charlton counter-parts. Adam Birchall opened the scoring in the 1st half with his 13th goal of the season, Steve O'Donnell got the second, and Bradley the 3rd from the penalty spot, all before half time. Birchall's 2nd made it 4-0 20 minutes into the 2nd half before Arsenal were reduced to 10 men for the last 15 minutes when keeper Matthew Niedzwiecki went off with a gashed scalp. Having used 3 subs, and no keeper on the bench, Wayne O'Sullivan went in goal and made a couple of good saves before being beaten by a 20 yarder late in the game.

See the ArseWeb youth team page for tables and further stats, and possibly a fuller report on the U17 game later.