Maturing Arsenal are actually getting younger

THE old adage that you never win anything with kids, demolished so spectacularly by Manchester United in the past, was decimated again during Arsenal’s victory over Barcelona.

It wasn’t, as some people have suggested, a new-found maturity that won the game for the Gunners; it was actually because they are getting younger.

A year ago, when Arsenal drew 2-2 at home with Barcelona before being beaten 4-1 in the Nou Camp, the average age of Arsene Wenger’s team was 24 years and four months — prompting suggestions they were simply too young and too inexperienced to deal with a team ranked as one of the best the world has ever seen.