Arsenal suffer 'major embarrassment' as reserves lose 10-1 to Aston Villa
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger may pride himself on his ability to produce young talent at the club but last night the reserve side were utterly humiliated in a 10-1 defeat to their Aston Villa counterparts.
The Arsenal side included a number of highly-rated youngsters, including Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Craig Eastmond but they were no match for the Villa team.
Chris Herd scored a hat-trick, while Gary Gardner and Andreas Weimann both scored twice in their comebacks from long-term injury lay-offs.
Nathan Delfouneso bagged two goals in the game at Hinckley United's De Montfort Park ground as well, with Jonathan Hogg also getting himself on the score sheet.
Arsenal may point to the fact they went down to ten men when George Brislen-Hall was set off for a foul on Hogg, but Villa fans are sure to highlight the fact the Gunners were already 1-0 down at that stage.
The result lifted Villa to the top of the table, two points clear of Arsenal.
Speaking after the game, Arsenal reserve coach Neil Banfield described the result as a ‘major embarrassment’.
‘I don’t know where to start. It’s 10-1, what can you say? It’s a major embarrassment but we’ve got to get up and get on with it. No-one likes to get beaten 10-1. There’s not really much you can say, I think 10-1 says it all,’ he said.
‘It’s just an extremely bad day but it’s football and we will pick ourselves up. No team at Arsenal should get beaten 10-1. We’ve all got to take the blame, me as well, the staff and the team and we get on with it.’
Metro - Clicky Same result from the big boys on Sunday will do.
