On Thursday night the Arsenal U18's will face off against their inter-city rivals, Chelsea in the first leg of their FA Youth Cup semi final. Whoever wins this crucial game will effectively have one foot in the final.

Chelsea are in slightly better form than Arsenal at the moment. They're unbeaten in their last 6. Their most recent game was a convincing 4-1 victory over Bolton Wanderes thanks to goals from Kasey Palmer, Charlie Colkett, Ike Ugbo and Mukhtar Ali.

Arsenal are also in some good form at the moment. Winning four out of their last six ames. However they did suffer a defeat to local rivals Tottenham Hostpur in which the score was 3-1. The Gunners' most recent game was against the Newcastle U18's. A strike from Stephy Mavididi. proving to be the decider for the hosts. Mavividi bagged his fifth goal in ten starts at U18's level, which is good form to be in coming into this game. The win against Newcastle also saw the debut of new signing Jonatas Centeno.

The last league fixture between these two teams took place on 15th of February, it finished 2-2 in the end. Mavividi was once again on the scoresheet after Renny Smith had opened the scoring. Chelsea then managed to get two late goals as Jake Clarke-Salter gave the Blues some hope in the 80th minute before Tammy Abraham netted a penalty six minutes later to complete the comeback for Chelsea.

Arsenal will be hoping that they can hold on and see the job through this time. Meanwhile Chelsea will have to keep a close look on the likes of Akpom and Crowley if they’re going to win this one. Whoever wins over the two legs will face Fulham in the final after they advanced past Reading.

Potential Arsenal U18's XI:

Vickers

Moore-Pleguezuelo-Siemann-Ormonde Ottewill

Kamara-Zelalem

Maitland Niles-Crowley-Iwobi

Akpom

subs: Huddart, O’Connor, Jebb, Dobson, Lipman.

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About the author
Jack Benson
Aspiring football journalist. Twitter: @_JackBenson