Arsenal and its young guns: Premier League has been the host to some prized youngsters and over its due span of time ever since its inception, it witnessed the rise of a few wunderkinder, breathing fire with an extraordinary brand of football.
A few of them stayed back and went onto establish themselves as stalwarts of the Premier League, while others had a fleeting bout of excellence before ebbing away to oblivion.
Since we mentioned youth, if one Premier League stalwart has managed to champion the cause of young players, that is Arsenal. A lot of young players have arrived at the Emirates with a dream. A few could achieve them, while others fizzled away.
Now goals make it an even more memorable outing for these blazing young guns. It becomes an even better one when you have your name etched onto the honours list for scoring at the youngest age.
In this story, we will take a quick glance at the five youngest players to score in a Premier League match for Arsenal.
#1 Cesc Fabregas – 17 years 114 days
This was a dream season for Arsenal as they finished in the second spot, 12 points adrift of champions, Chelsea, and 6 ahead of third-placed Manchester United. However, the striking feature about Arsenal in that season was the number of goals that they scored. They hammered home 87 goals which were the highest in that season, however, the dominance washed away due to a leaky defence, ceding 36 goals.
This was a game against Bolton Wanderers and after an uneventful first half, Thierry Henry opened the scoring for the Gunners in the 50th minute. Eight minutes later, Cesc Fabregas became the youngest player in Arsenal history to score as he hammered home his opening blow, out of the many to come. Reyes struck in the 79th minute to seal a comfortable victory for the Gunners.
#2 Serge Gnabry – 18 years 77 days
This was a clash between Arsenal and Swansea City where the game until the opening goal wasn’t simply just drab, but it was an eyesore. Both the teams lacked the zing to score, and the gentry of football for grabs was simply awful. However, after an electrifying combination, Arsenal opened the doors with Gnabry becoming the second-youngest goal-scorer for the Gunners.
The move emanated from Olivier Giroud, who chipped in a delectable ball into the stride of Jack Wilshere, who caressed a precise return-ball for the surging Gnabry to stroke past a hapless Vorm, drawing first blood for Arsenal. Ramsey sealed the deal for the gunners with the second strike of the night just four minutes later.
#3 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 18 years 173 days
This was a crazy match-up between the Gunners and Blackburn Rovers and in the end, it was an affront to their modesty as Arsenal toyed with them. A hat-trick from Van Persie combined with a brace from Oxlade-Chamberlain laid waste to the Rovers. Mikel Arteta and Henry’s late strikes completed the emphatic rout.
Despite an early exchange of haymakers, Van Persie and Alex shortly took Arsenal ahead, and to make things easier for the Gunners, Blackburn was reduced to ten men with Gael Givet being given marching orders. It was a phenomenal through-ball from RVP that found Alex at the receiving end, and he blazed past the goal-keeper to nudge the ball home into an empty net. His second strike was a result of Walcott’s blistering run, who skinned a couple of defenders and fed him with a gem of a ball to nudge home.
#4 Gabriel Martinelli – 18 years, 174 days
This performance from the Brazilian was very special. It wasn’t because he became one of the youngest goal-scorers, but Arsenal was trailing until that point in time, and it needed something special to bring them back. Lucas Torreira sent a scouring pass for Kolasinac on the right, who in turn fed an onrushing Martinelli and the Brazilian successfully nudged it home to restore parity.
That goal was the cue for Arsenal to blaze back to life, and they did that in pompous fashion, with Pepe and Aubameyang striking in quick succession to brush aside the challenge from West Ham. Martinelli missed out on the milestone of being the third youngest scorer by a solitary day.
#5 Aaron Ramsey – 18 years 240 days
In a more or less skewed encounter, Ramsey hammered the last nail on the coffin of Portsmouth, sealing the fate of the tie in clinical fashion. Diaby started the onslaught with an early brace. However, Kaboul halved the deficit just ahead of half-time.
Gallas struck on the other side of the breather to restore the 2-goals cushion that set the podium for the young Ramsey to set his own milestone. He hammered a decent finish to send Arsenal triumphant over Portsmouth in a convenient fashion.
