The Young Blues took the lead through Ian Carlo Poveda but were pegged back by a Nathan Tormey leveller before the interval.
What happened
Both sides made a confident start to the game, with Paul Harsley’s youngsters stroking the ball around confidently in the early stages at the cold but sunny City Football Academy.
We created the first opening of the encounter, with Morgan Rogers finding space inside the box, but there was nobody on the end of his drilled delivery into the six-yard box.
The visitors created the next big chance of the game, with striker Folarin Balogun racing through on goal, rounding Gavin Bazunu, but his effort from a tight angle luckily cannoned back off the post.
The Young Blues settled down again following the scare and opened the scoring in the 34th minute through Ian Carlo Poveda. Arsenal failed to clear a corner and the ball fell to Adrian Bernabe, whose sensational diagonal pass was controlled perfectly by Poveda before drilling the ball into the far-left corner.
The Gunners almost hit back immediately, but Balogun’s close-range effort was diverted wide by the stretching Eric Garcia. From the resulting corner, the visitors levelled the scores. Bazunu saved the initial header from Balogun, but Nathan Tormey was on hand to prod the ball into the net.
It was a frantic end to the half and we almost regained the lead two minutes before the interval through Rogers, who burst through on goal, but his low effort was saved well by Karl Hein.
We emerged from the break with a spring in our step and threatened to take the lead again five minutes after the restart, but Hein was at his best again to deny the dangerous Poveda.
The visitors regrouped and almost made City pay, but Bazunu was alert to Tormey’s long-range effort, tipping the ball around the post. City continued to probe for the go-ahead goal and Iker Pozo was next to go close, his volleyed effort bouncing just wide.
Rogers was causing all sorts of problems for the Arsenal defence and almost got the decisive goal, but his curling effort from the left-hand side of the box unfortunately bounced back off the inside of the post with just under 15 minutes remaining.
The visitors threatened to steal a victory towards the death, but some fantastic City defending preserved a point in a pulsating encounter.
What it means
The point keeps Paul Harsley’s men at the bottom of the Premier League 2 Division 1, with six points from nine games.
How we lined up
Gavin Bazunu started in goal, shielded by a back four of Alpha Diounkou, Eric Garcia, skipper Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Nathanael Ogbeta. Iker Pozo, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru and Adrian Bernabe operated in midfield, with Morgan Rogers and Ian Carlo Poveda providing the width for frontman Ben Knight.
Up next
Our EDS side are back in action on Tuesday 29 October in the Leasing.com Trophy, travelling to the University of Bolton Stadium to face Bolton Wanderers. Kick-off is scheduled for 19:00 GMT.
