{"id":3284,"date":"2026-05-16T14:14:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T14:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/?p=3284"},"modified":"2026-05-16T14:14:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T14:14:51","slug":"birchall-eager-to-build-on-lessons-learned-interview-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/?p=3284","title":{"rendered":"Birchall eager to build on lessons learned | Interview | News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Adam Birchall was left with mixed feelings after his young Gunners side finished their U18 Premier League South season with a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our under-18s conceded two early but fought back through goals from Maalik Hashi and Brando Bailey-Joseph to take a point in south London.<\/p>\n

“We should have won the game, but I said to the lads we didn’t deserve to win the game because of how we started.<\/p>\n

“We started on the back foot, challenged the players before the game to really try and impose our style on the game but understanding that the game Palace wanted was very physical, very fast and to be very transitional, but we didn’t do that.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t do that and we fell on the back foot, went 2-0 down. Credit to the players, they responded and the full second half completely dominated the game.<\/p>\n

“We just couldn’t find a way to win the game, but I think sometimes not winning the game is the biggest lesson. The team responded and showed some great character.”<\/p>\n

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\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n

U18s report: Crystal Palace 2-2 Arsenal <\/span>
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Adam highlighted Bailey-Joseph’s performance as a standout display, with the winger showing signs of brilliance throughout and topping it off with an important goal.<\/p>\n

The young Gun has enjoyed a strong season, featuring regularly for our under-21s too, and Adam now wants him to add consistency to his game.<\/p>\n

“It was clear to everyone here today that he was absolutely outstanding.<\/p>\n

“My challenge to him is to be relentless and do it every time he plays. There’s no doubt he has very high potential and a lot of talent.<\/p>\n

“But again, it’s not going to come out unless you have the mentality to do it. So I challenged him with that today, the mentality.<\/p>\n

“I really liked his mentality, the way he got the wing-back time and time again. He put him on the back foot, showed maturity in that way. So, excited to see what he can do next season with the stuff he’s learned this year.”<\/p>\n

As our academy season draws to a close, Adam reflected on a campaign shaped by transition and a focus on developing players above their regular age group.<\/p>\n

Our under-18s head coach is determined to carry takeaways from a tricky chapter into an improved 2026\/27.<\/p>\n

“I’m always excited for the players, obviously, the under-16s that will come up next year. We’ve had them play quite a lot this season, and we had under-18s play up in the under-21s, with many first-years getting game time.<\/p>\n

“So, we’ve been very young this season and I’m really excited to see that the lessons learned from this year really impact what the players do next season and give them a real foundation to go on and have a career.<\/p>\n

“Touching on today, for example, just making sure mentally and physically we’re ready to perform every game.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam Birchall was left with mixed feelings after his young Gunners side finished their U18 Premier League South season with a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace. Our under-18s conceded two … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}