WHAT HAPPENED
We fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat in our latest pre-season friendly as Slough Town edged what was a competitive affair under the lights at Arbour Park on Friday night.
The hosts started the quicker of the sides and raced into the lead after just five minutes, Ben Harris capitalising on an error at the back and finished from close range.
Harris almost doubled his tally moments later, but Alexei Rojas was equal to his header inside the box to keep us falling further behind.
We recovered from our slow start and began to dictate the tempo in midfield, but struggled to create any real goalscoring opportunities before the break.
We started brightly after the interval and came close to equalising, Henry Timi Davies rounding Jonathan North in the Slough Town goal, but his effort was sent just wide of the post.
Ethan Nwaneri looked lively and almost drew us level midway through the second half, pouncing on a loose ball just outside the box, but could only fire his first-time strike over the crossbar.
Jack Wilshere's young charges pressed hard in the closing stages, but were unable to find a breakthrough against the National League South side.
Photography: George Beck
WHAT'S NEXT
We begin our Under-18 Premier League season against Chelsea on Saturday, August 13.
Kick-off at London Colney is at 11am (UK time).
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
