Arsenal have developed a reputation for bringing through young talent, which may make it surprising to some that victory in this season's FA Youth Cup would be their first in 14 years.
The Gunners, who have benefited from the expertise of former first-teamers Jack Wilshere and Per Mertesacker, will take on West Ham in the FA Youth Cup final. The under-18 side booked their place in the final with an extra-time victory over Manchester City, thanks to a winner from Myles Lewis-Skelly.
A number of those involved in the final have been in and around the first-team, including record-breaker Ethan Nwaneri. Here, Mirror Football looks at the last group of young Gunners to win the trophy, including a few men who went on to turn out for the senior side.
James Shea
Arsenal's starting goalkeeper in both legs of the final, Shea never made a first-team breakthrough with the likes of Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski ahead of him in the queue. However, after briefly dropping down to non-league with Harrow Borough, he worked his way back up.
Three solid seasons with AFC Wimbledon earned Shea a move to Luton, with whom he has risen from League Two to the Championship. Rob Edwards' side are pushing for promotion to the top-flight but Shea has yet to play this season after a serious injury kept him sidelined for the first half of the campaign.
Craig Eastmond
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Eastmond made a handful of first-team appearances for Arsenal under Arsene Wenger. The midfielder made his Premier League bow against Portsmouth in December 2009 and added three further appearances in the competition, eventually leaving for Colchester in 2013.
Arsenal fans may remember Eastmond as part of the Sutton United team which faced Arsenal in the 2016-17 FA Cup after a giant-killing run. He is still there, playing his part in a promotion push in 2021 and continuing to feature in League Two.
Thomas Cruise
A left-back by trade, Cruise played just once for Arsenal. He got a 90-minute runout against Olympiacos in the 2009-10 Champions League, joining the likes of Kerrea Gilbert and Mikael Silvestre in a rotated defence.
After a stint with Torquay, the defender quit football altogether and retrained as an accountant. “I’ve always been really good with numbers, so the decision to choose accountancy was a no-brainer," he said in 2016. "I wish to enter this field of work once I complete my qualification, and am very excited to see what I can achieve.”
Emmanuel Frimpong
For a while, it looked as though Frimpong would be one of the bigger success stories from the squad. He played a number of Premier League games for the Gunners, but top-flight loans with Wolves and Fulham didn't provide the progress some might have hoped for.
The England youth international would go on to win one senior cap for Ghana, and his post-Arsenal career saw him play in Russia, Sweden and Cyprus before injuries forced him into early retirement. Current under-18s boss and former Arsenal team-mate Jack Wilshere was among those to wish him well when he hung up his boots.
Kyle Bartley
Bartley played in the same Olympiacos game where Cruise made his debut, and was given a few more outings by Wenger. Eventually, though, the centre-back looked elsewhere for top-flight opportunities.
He first joined Swansea City, playing sporadically under a series of managers, but left after their relegation in 2018. A move to West Brom has brought more opportunities, with the defender making 30 appearances in the Baggies' top-flight campaign in 2020-21 and playing his 150th game for them this term.
Luke Ayling
Ayling, like Bartley, eventually got his Premier League chance away from North London. He never made a senior competitive appearance for Arsenal, and only even made the bench once.
After a few years in the Football League with Yeovil and Bristol City, the defender joined current club Leeds in 2016. He has played close to 250 times for the Yorkshire side, helping them earn promotion to the Premier League, and remains a key figure in their squad.
Henri Lansbury
Lansbury was earmarked as one of the future stars in 2009, having impressed at age group level for England as well as for his club. The midfielder did get some opportunities under Wenger, but eventually recognised it was time to fly the nest.
He played just three Premier League games for Arsenal, as well as a few more in the cups, and eventually got another top-flight chance with Aston Villa in 2019-20. He's one of a number of ex-Gunners in Luton's promotion-chasing side this term, but hasn't made it onto the pitch since February.
Francis Coquelin
French midfielder Coquelin made a bigger first-team impact than many on this list. For a while it looked as though he wouldn't quite make the grade, but a breakout 2014-15 season changed all that.
Coquelin played more than 100 Premier League games before leaving Arsenal for good in 2018, joining Valencia and then Villarreal. He was part of the Yellow Submarine side which reached last season's Champions League semi-finals, scoring in the second leg against Liverpool.
Gilles Sunu
Another French youth international, Sunu now represents Togo internationally. The forward made the switch in 2018, having rebuilt his career in Ligue 1 after leaving Arsenal.
He played just twice for the Gunners' first-team, once in the Champions League and once in the League Cup, and was on the bench for the infamous 8-2 Premier League defeat against Man Utd. He is now back at Chateauroux, his hometown club and the team from which he joined Arsenal as a teenager.
Jack Wilshere
Wilshere was already a first-teamer by the time the Youth Cup final rolled around, having become Arsenal's youngest ever player in 2008. He scored a penalty in the first leg against Liverpool's under-18s, before going on to make more than 100 top-flight appearances for his boyhood club.
There were some undoubted high points for the England international, but the second half of his playing career was plagued by injuries before his early retirement. Now, as coach of Arsenal's youth team, he is looking to write the next chapter.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
Another scorer in the first leg against Liverpool, Emmanuel-Thomas would go on to impress for Arsenal's under-23 side. Senior opportunities were harder to come by, though, and he left in 2011 after just five senior outings.
Emmanuel-Thomas has led a nomadic existence in the years since. There have been spells in Thailand and Scotland, as well as a number of English clubs, and he is currently playing in the Indian Super League with Jamshedpur.
Rhys Murphy
Ireland under-21 forward Murphy was unable to make a breakthrough at Arsenal. After a couple of loan moves, he made a permanent exit in 2012 and tried his luck in the Netherlands with Telstar.
A return to English football soon followed, and he has flitted between the lower-reaches of the EFL and the upper-reaches of non-league. Now 32, he is part of a Southend squad looking to climb back into the 92 under Kevin Maher.
Charlie Mann
Backup goalkeeper Mann didn't make it onto the pitch in 2009, but was the backup to Shea for both games. He left later that year, though, moving to the other side of London to join Crystal Palace.
The evergreen Julian Speroni was tough to get past at Selhurst Park, but Mann was on the bench for a number of Eagles games. Little information is available as to what he got up to after leaving South London.
Sanchez Watt
Watt was the only player to net in both legs against Liverpool. The striker put away Arsenal's third goal in the home leg and opened the scoring at Anfield.
He scored on his senior Arsenal debut, a League Cup game against West Brom in September 2009, but added just two further appearances. After injuries forced him into early retirement, the former frontman was seen coaching at Hale End in 2022.
Conor Henderson
Midfield man Henderson was a late substitute in both legs of the Youth Cup final. His senior Arsenal career was similarly short-lived, with just the one FA Cup appearance and a couple of call-ups as an unused sub in the league.
The Irish under-21 international dropped down the leagues before eventually making the move abroad. His travels have seen him rack up minutes in Romania and Bulgaria, where he was most recently on the books of Pirin Blagoevgrad.
Cedric Evina
Cameroonian left-back Evina never made the grade for Arsenal's first-team. He did, however, remain in the English football pyramid throughout his career.
Most of his appearances came in a spell with Doncaster, but Evina also represented the likes of Charlton and Crawley. He is now reported to be retired, having last played for Romford in 2020.
Oguzhan Ozyakup
Ozyakup never made a Premier League appearance for Arsenal, but was handed a couple of cup outings by Wenger. He eventually left for Besiktas, where he had a lot more luck, playing more than 300 games including a number in European competitions before joining Fortuna Sittard last summer.
A Dutch youth international in his Arsenal days, the midfielder now has 43 senior caps for Turkey. He played all three games at Euro 2016 as his team finished third in their group behind Croatia and Spain.
