Hertfordshire beckons for Derby County’s Under 23s this afternoon when they travel to take on Arsenal for their first Premier League 2 Division 1 fixture of 2017.
Darren Wassall’s side head to the Gunners’ state-of-the-art London Colney training centre looking for a return to winning ways (kick-off: 1pm) and ahead of the fixture, dcfc.co.uk has pulled together all there is to know about the clash.The Rams will be without Callum Guy and Kyron Stabana, who will both serve one-match suspensions.
Guy, the midfielder, picked up his fifth booking of the season in Derby’s 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the league before Christmas.
Stabana was also sent off in the first half of that fixture for two bookable offences and he will now miss out on the trip for Friday’s clash with Arsenal.
Their absences mean Wassall, Derby’s academy director, will certainly be forced into two changes for their latest outing.
Offrande Zanzala continues to be ruled out through injury, whilst Mason Bennett is pushing closer for a return to action and could return to the matchday fold today.
Since defeating Southampton at Pride Park Stadium in October, Derby have lost two and drawn the other of their last three Premier League 2 outings.
The Rams will begin the calendar year at the foot of the Division 1 table following their promotion last season, but are just two points from safety ahead of the trip to London.
Arsenal head into the game off the back of a 3-2 defeat to Liverpool themselves, but the Gunners had won their previous three games prior to that – beating Sunderland (4-0), Tottenham Hotspur (2-0) and Leicester City (3-0).
With 10 games remaining of the 2016/17 season, Rawson, the Derby Under 23 captain, has delivered a defiant message to the rest of the squad to make the most of the opportunity ahead of them.
He told dcfc.co.uk:“There’s no pressure on us at all. We need to go out there and enjoy every game. Let’s step up, we’re all capable of it and, on our day, we are more than capable of giving anyone a game.
“I feel that we can beat anyone in this division and we have proven that we can mix it with the best in this league over the first half of the season.
“There shouldn’t be any fear from us. We just need to go into every game and have a right go.
“Our league position doesn’t reflect how we are playing, but if we continue to do the right things every day in training then things will click for us and begin to go our way.
“Our aim is to stay in the league. We worked hard to get up here and we want to say that we are competing with the top sides for another year come the end of this season.”
Read his full interview ahead of Derby Under 23s' return to action by clicking here.
DERBY COUNTY 1-3 ARSENALFriday 9 September, 2016
A classy first half performance from Arsenal saw Derby County’s Under 23s fall to a 3-1 defeat at St George’s Park back in September.
Chris Willock opened the scoring as the Rams went behind early doors for the third consecutive game, before Chuba Akpom, who was on loan at Hull City last season, made it two with a similar finish.
The same man added a second before the hour mark, as Charles Vernam’s penalty conversion proved to be a consolation despite Darren Wassall’s side rally late on.
Derby County U23s: Ravas, Stabana, Rawson, Wassall, Cover (Gordon, 46), Macdonald; Hanson, Guy, Elsnik (Babos, 57), Santos (Jakobsen, 67); Vernam
Substitutes not used: Barnes, Walker
Arsenal U23s: Keto, Johnson, Da Graca, Bielik, Bola (Da Silva, 70), Zelalem, Sheaf, Maitland-Niles, Mavididi, Willock, Akpom
Substitutes not used: Bannacer, Virginia, Dragomir, Mourgos> 
Rams fans not attending this afternoon's fixture will be able to keep up to date with how Darren Wassall’s men get on by following the official Derby County Twitter account, @dcfcofficial, whilst a full match report, match images, reaction and match highlights will follow across dcfc.co.uk and RamsTV after the full-time whistle.
Tweets by @ dcfcofficial
