Two extremely inexperienced sides are likely to be in action at Carrow Road this evening when Norwich City take on Arsenal in their latest Premiership Reserve League encounter.

Two extremely inexperienced sides are likely to be in action at Carrow Road this evening when Norwich City take on Arsenal in their latest Premiership Reserve League encounter.

With both clubs hit by a mixture of injuries, fixture congestion and international call ups the average age of both sets of players is likely to be well under 20.

Keith Webb won't have any first team players to call upon tonight ahead of tomorrow's trip to Championship leaders Reading and will almost certainly have to include a number of emergency recruits from Easton College just to make up the numbers.

That sort of selection headache sums up a frustrating campaign for City's reserve coach, whose side are currently rooted to the foot of the table after winning just two of their opening 15 fixtures, while scoring a mere five goals.

“It has been a hard season all round so far, especially with the number of injuries we have had, so Monday night will be nothing new,” he said.

“It's something we've got used to, but at the end of the day the first team has to take priority.”

Arsenal have experienced similar problems this season and were forced to call off a reserve fixture last week because of a lack of numbers.

“At this moment in time a lot of the big clubs are finding it difficult,” he said. “We are certainly not the only ones.”

Tonight's game looks set to be a distinctly low-key occasion compared to the last season's reserve meeting between this two sides at Carrow Road when over 6000 fans turned up to see the hosts record a 2-1 victory of a young Arsenal side including a number of players who have since broken into Arsene Wenger's first team.