Arsenal Vs Blackpool: 5 things we learned – Young guns explode

3. Joe Willock shines again

The first-half performance was excellent from Arsenal. Away from home. A cold winter’s night. A tough, experienced team that caused them problems in the EFL Cup earlier in the year at the Emirates. There was much that could have gone wrong.

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But the Gunners were wonderfully sharp in their attacking play, especially early on. And at the heart of it all was Joe Willock, a young midfielder who is benefitting greatly from the work of Freddie Ljungberg with the youth teams — It was Ljungberg’s decision to play in the Checkatrade trophy and those younger players looked far more prepared for this difficult fixture as a result.

Willock was brilliant. He scored the two first-half goals, showing surprising instinct and awareness to anticipate where the chance may fall, first from a deflected freekick that rebounded off the post and then from a whipped Carl Jenkinson cross that flicked off Eddie Nketiah, and was extremely composed on the ball throughout, more than willing to drop deep and link play and then turn and drive at the Blackpool defence.

I had often overlooked Willock in comparison to some of the other bright young players that Arsenal currently boast. But this season, bar Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Matteo Guendouzi, he has been the best of them, including this showing here.