Ex-Arsenal youth striker finds his scoring touch | OneFootball

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Daily Cannon

·1 January 2022

Ex-Arsenal youth striker finds his scoring touch

Article image:Ex-Arsenal youth striker finds his scoring touch

Former Arsenal academy striker Luke Plange has scored twice in his first four games for Derby County’s senior side.

After running down his Arsenal deal this year, Luke Plange completed a transfer to Derby County over the summer.

The striker had impressed in spells with the Arsenal u18s, but he’d been unable to find a way past a number of talented forwards in the club’s academy, so a move made sense to continue his development.


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Plange made a solid start with the Derby u23s, particularly given it was his first foray into u23 football. The 19-year-old scored five and assisted one in his first 10 games in the Premier League 2.

But what has been even more impressive is that the young forward has already followed that up by making it into Derby’s senior side.

Earlier this month, Plange made his debut from the bench for a half against Bristol City. He followed that up with a start and a goal against Blackpool, before making another couple of starts this week and scoring against Stoke City.

Plange’s two Championship strikes came in one-goal wins for bottom-of-the-table Derby. They were important goals that are certainly going to make him popular with the supporters.

They’re going to need a few more goals from him this season, after their points deductions this season. Derby are 11 points away from safety at the halfway stage, but three consecutive wins have given them hope again.

If Plange ends up hitting it off on a consistent basis at Derby, it wouldn’t be the first time Arsenal had helped them out this season.

The Gunners also allowed the Championship club to defer payment of their transfer fee for Krystian Bielik to help with their cash-flow problems.

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