Ange praises maturity and discipline of Destiny and our younger players at Arsenal

    Ange Postecoglou was impressed with the maturity on show from Destiny Udogie     after an early yellow card and the way our younger players dealt with their first north London derby as we drew 2-2 with Arsenal on Sunday.

Full-back Destiny, just 20, had a fascinating battle with England winger Bukayo Saka down our left and found himself in the referee’s notebook with just 15 minutes on the clock of what is always a fiercely competitive encounter.

Nevertheless, he got on with the job, kept Saka in check for the most part – Saka’s goals via a deflection and from the penalty spot – and continued to push forward with his trademark bursts throughout.

In the end, a double from Heung-Min Son matched up Saka’s goals as it ended 2-2 at the Emirates.

Asked about Destiny and that show of maturity in his post-match press conference, Ange responded: “Spot on. I thought both our full-backs had difficult jobs. Arsenal’s wide players are outstanding players and that’s where their threats are.

“Destiny getting booked early, it could have made it difficult, but the way he dealt with it, in the end I thought he was the dominant player on that side of the pitch. He finished really strong and had to contend with having a yellow card.

“It’s a great learning experience for him and for all the guys. They’ve come through that, going toe to toe with a top side. There’s a real will and desire to become the team we want to be, which includes making sure that you’re disciplined and you’re buying into the team ethos and we had a really young team out there.

“Vic, that’s his first derby, Destiny, van de Ven, Pape Matar Sarr, Brendan, they’re all in their early twenties, Porro, even Kulusevski is only 23, so it was a young team but just super proud of the experienced players we did have in there. Romero was outstanding, Bissouma has been brilliant all year, Maddison, and Sonny was just on a different level, not just his goals, although they were outstanding, but his work rate, his work ethic was incredible.”