Tuesday’s Carabao Cup clash with West Ham United gave us another glimpse of the next batch of youngsters hoping to break into our senior team.
Joe Willock impressed in central midfield, while Reiss Nelson, Ben Sheaf and Josh Dasilva both came off the bench to get more first-team minutes under their belts.
But Arsène Wenger has been using our academy products in the Premier League too, and says utilising our production line of young talent will always remain a key part of our philosophy.
“On Saturday, we played with four players who have been educated here: Iwobi, Wilshere, Maitland-Niles and Bellerin,” the manager said.
“So, you look at the other teams who played at the top and you tell me who has played with four players who have been educated in their academy? We do that every time we can but overall I believe it remains the basis of our philosophy.
“I agree with you it doesn’t always come off as we would like but we still are one of the teams who, if you look at the last 20 years, puts more players out than anybody else.”
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