STOKE CITY RESERVES 0 (Arismendi sent off 43)
ARSENAL RESERVES 1 (Barazite 8)
AN impressive performance from debutant Asmir Begovic wasn't enough to inspire City to a share of the spoils in Wednesday night's Barclays Premier Reserve League South clash at Nantwich Town's Weaver Stadium, as Nacer Barazite's first half strike ensured all three points for Arsenal.
The young Dutch striker fired home a superb effort early in the first half, before City spurned several opportunities to get themselves back into the contest. The sending off of Diego Arismendi for the Potters just before half time all but ended City's hopes of a second half fight-back, though they did go close to drawing themselves level late on through Matthew Lund.
Ahead of the game Mark O'Connor named a semi-strong side with the likes of Amdy Faye, Andy Davies and Arismendi all named in the starting eleven, alongside Academy stars Louis Moult, Tom Urwin and Matthew Cohen.
Begovic's City bow was less than ten minutes old by the time his first task was to pick the ball out of his own net as Dutch Youth star Barazite exquisitely fired the Gunners into an early lead. The young striker reacted quickest to a loose ball just outside the penalty area and clinically fired the ball beyond the Bosnian international and into the back of the net via the crossbar.
Barely two minutes later though the hosts should have been back on level terms. A neat one-two between Amdy Faye and Tom Urwin led to Louis Moult being freed through on goal, but with just the keeper to beat the 18-year old curled his effort well over Vito Mannone's bar.
Bosnian international Begovic, who was making his Potters bow, was then at the thick of the action again as he was forced into a smart save from Jay Thomas, whilst a minute later he again had to come to City's rescue to thwart Gilles Sunlu, who was looking to cap off a fine run with a goal.
Up at the other end some more clever link up play, this time between former Crewe man Lund and Moult, resulted in the latter finding a gap in-between the Gunners' backline, however, in similar fashion to his last effort, the 18-year old blasted the ball high and wide.
Some trademark Arsenal football saw the hosts backline calved open just after the half hour mark as Barazite beat the offside trap to latch onto Thomas' cute ball forward, only to see his effort saved well by Begovic.
Stoke's task of getting back into the game suffered a huge blow just a minute prior to the interval as Uruguay international Arismendi was shown a red card by referee Alex Hendley, after appearing to have head-butted Fran Merida in an off the ball incident.
During the break O'Connor decided to change things around as he introduced Cameron Mitchell at the expense of Urwin following Arismendi's dismissal, whilst Arsenal boss Neil Banfield opted to retain faith with the same eleven which he started the game with.
The second half started slowly, a stark contrast to the first, with neither side managing to get a foothold on the game. The visitors looked to change that though by introducing Luke Freeman in the 62nd minute with goalscorer Barazite the man making way for him.
Things gradually improved as both Thomas and Emmanuel Frimpong curled efforts wide of the post, whilst Moult was unlucky not to free Mitchell through on goal after using his pace to beat Craig Eastmond on the flank.
Begovic then showed his credentials by brilliantly denying Freeman from 8-yards after Frimpong dinked a delightful ball over the Potters' backline. The hosts pushed forward in search of a late equaliser as the game wore on and they were unlucky not to snatch a point when Davies laid off Alex Hedley's long punt forward in to the path of Lund, who fired inches wide of the post from close range.
There was still time for Wedderburn to go close with a 20-yard free-kick in the 86th minute, whilst Begovic saved well from a similar effort from Frimpong to keep the deficit down to one in stoppage time.
CITY (4-5-1): Begovic; Sinclair, Cohen, Davies, Hedley; Lund, Arismendi, Wedderburn, Amdy Faye, Urwin; Moult. Subs: St. Louis-Hamilton, Vickers, Stockhall, Jackson, Mitchell.
ARSENAL (4-4-2): Mannone; Coquelin, Ayling, Miquel, Cruise; Frimpong, Merida, Eastmond, Sunlu; Thomas, Barazite. Subs: Henderson, Shea, Freeman, Yennaris, Evina.
