Jack Wilshere has backed his Arsenal under-18 players to bounce back after their 5-1 defeat to West Ham in the FA Youth Cup final at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners took an early lead through Omari Benjamin, but were pegged back by quickfire goals from George Earthy and Callum Marshall before Gideon Kodua's sublime lob from the halfway gave the Hammers a 3-1 lead at the break. Arsenal started the second half well, but two late set-piece goals from Kaelan Casey and Josh Briggs gave the scoreline a more brutal look at full time.
Despite the disappointing nature of the loss however, Wilshere has backed his young side to bounce back from their disappointment in the near future.
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"it’s difficult at the moment because my overriding feeling is devastation really," he told football.london after the game. "Not really for myself but more for the boys because I feel they’ve been so good. When you play in a final and you lose 5-1 at home it can effect you and it looks bad.
"But also I thought we started really well, went 1-0 up, but then we didn’t manage their counter-attacks well. We spoke about that. They scored two goals and I think we responded quite well from that, but then the third goal took a bit out of us.
"But then we were calm, we came out in the second half, we tried, we created chances and maybe with a bit more composure it could have been a different game. Then when West Ham go and score two set-pieces it looks like a disaster. So it’s tough for the boys but some big lessons.
"The boys have been exceptional and I said that to them after. Yes, there’s big lessons tonight and I think it’s important that they take that, but they should also be really proud of themselves because they’ve given themselves, me and the coaching staff some unbelievable memories.
"There are some moments in football that don’t happen all the time and when they happen you have to take them in and appreciate them because you have moments like this. The boys are on the floor in the dressing room. But that’s football and we have to learn from it."
Arsenal have had a decent history in the FA Youth Cup and reached the final in 2017, but were ultimately well beaten by Chelsea. Featured in that group were Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe, who have both gone on to have starring roles for the first team.
Wilshere admitted it's down to the players to go on and replicate that, but revealed that he would be taking on a piece of advice from first team manager Mikel Arteta when it came to helping them to do so.
"I’ve heard Mikel say it a lot after defeats that sometimes the players need a lot more love," he said. "Especially when you lose a final and it’s at home against a London rival. At the moment they need love.
"When the dust settles we’ll review it, look at what we did well and what we didn’t do well, the same as always. We’ve got a game Saturday so it will be interesting to see the strong ones within that group who come out on Thursday when we’re training and where they’re training and where they’re at."
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