On the 20th anniversary of the night when Arsenal claimed the most dramatic and historic of its titles at the same stadium, Steve Bould and his young Gunners won the FA Youth Cup Final over Liverpool at Anfield on Tuesday.

Arsenal’s 2-1 victory on the road gave the team a 6-2 final aggregate score and secured a league and cup double in 2009 for the Gunners, who captured the Academy League trophy by defeating Tottenham on May 17. The 2009 FA Youth Cup title is the club’s seventh overall, and first since 2001.

A Sanchez Watt strike in the first half along with a Liverpool own goal in the second period was all that was needed to win this second leg matchup, on an evening much less tense and dramatic than the special night on Merseyside exactly two decades earlier.

The young Gunners held a three-goal advantage going into Tuesday night’s match, after dominating Liverpool 4-1 in the Final’s first leg at the Emirates on Friday. Gilles Sunu, Jack Wilshere, Sanchez Watt and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas all scored for Arsenal, who — in a scenario opposite to that of 20 years previous — could have afforded to lose by two clear goals yet still claim the title.

Steve Bould, a defender on that 1989 Arsenal team that snatched the league trophy away from Liverpool at Anfield, now manages the Gunners’ Under 18 team and was pleased with the club’s performance.

“It wasn’t anywhere near the level we reached on Friday, but we showed our quality in a few little patches,” the manager stated after the match. “I think we were always capable of stepping it up because Liverpool came back to 1-1 but we still got the result.”

When asked about capturing another title at Anfield exactly 20 years after the famous win, Bould said: “It’s different to winning as a player. This is not first team level but it doesn’t matter. The biggest, most pleasing part for me is not just the result but the fact that we’ve got good kids here and we think we are developing them as players.”

Defender Kyle Bartley added that “After winning the first leg 4-1, we had to keep focused. We had to avoid sloppy mistakes in order to win the game and we did that. We knew that if we kept Liverpool’s strikers quiet then we would do well.

“I think we were confident that we could be the best. We tried not to be too arrogant because sometimes that can slip into our game, but we thought we had a good chance,” he told arsenal.com’s Chris Harris after Tuesday’s triumph. “You don’t play northern teams in the Academy League until the play-offs and with the split divisions, you don’t know who’s the best.”

Teammate Jack Wilshere said the team “knew we had the strength in depth to do it, and it’s just great to win both the league and cup. We always had belief we could do it. We just carried on showing what we could do and the cups came.”

Bartley and Wilshere were among the nine youth players in Arsenal’s starting lineup Tuesday who are English, and Bould said in an interview with BBC London that club manager Arsene Wenger is keen to blood some domestic talent into the first team’s ranks.

“Arsene is always watching these kids and knows everything about them,” he said. “They are very talented and there is definitely some real home-grown talent here who could break through.”

And Bould added that rather than being judged on winning the Youth Cup, “What we should be judged by is how many kids we get in first teams. Now we want to see them getting in our first team (at Arsenal).”

“We’ve got Kieran (Gibbs) in at the minute, Jack (Wilshere) has been taken into the first team and we’re hoping we’ve got three, four or five more that are capable of that,” he continued. “But it’s quite difficult because the first team is young at the minute but we think we’re producing players.”

And the 2008-09 season “produced” by these players has been outstanding, according to its manager. “For these kids it has topped a great, great year,” said Bould.

“We know we are not in a results environment when we set out at the start of the season, but the way they have performed all year, they have been head and shoulders above most of the other teams in the country. I think we’ve got excellent players, and this is the icing on the cake.”

It was twenty years ago today that Michael Thomas scored the league-winning goal in injury time at Anfield, arguably the most important moment in Arsenal history. Arsenal America salutes Thomas, captain Tony Adams, manager George Graham, and the entire championship side!

The main stories in the media surrounding Arsenal Football Club in this final week of the Premiership season include some reports in recent days that manager Arsene Wenger might leave the London club for Real Madrid this summer.

Such rumors have emerged since last week’s shareholder meeting when Arsene Wenger voiced his criticism over questions directed to him from club supporters who were attending.

Heated exchanges at the event, along with a pledge from Madrid presidential candidate Florentino Perez to make Wenger his first choice as the club’s new manager next season should he be elected this summer, led to stories in the British press that the Frenchman would be looking to leave Arsenal.

But according to more recent quotes from Wenger in such places as a Daily Mail article, he will continue as Arsenal manager and spurn the advances of Spanish giants Real Madrid.

Even while previously admitting that the advances from Madrid were ”strongly interesting,” Wenger is quoted in Wednesday’s Daily Mail insisting that he has no plans to quit the Emirates.

”There’s nothing to worry about, it’s not an issue for me,” he told the newspaper. ”I’m staying here. If that changes I will let you know, but don’t worry about that. It’s not an issue.”

Wenger’s comments reportedly came on a day in which he had a three-hour meeting with Ivan Gazidis, the club’s new chief executive, at Arsenal’s training ground in London Colney to discuss transfer targets and budgets.

Since arriving at the club in 1996, Wenger has impressively transformed Arsenal’s playing style along with the club’s fortunes, leading his charges to three Premiership titles, league and cup doubles in 1998 and 2002, and into the UEFA Champions League final in 2006.

But a drought without any trophies the past four seasons has caused concern among some Arsenal supporters who have seemed to lose patience with the manager and his policies this spring. While conceding the team has considerable young talent, the naysayers and doubters believe the side lacks both experience and strength in depth to challenge for titles with rival clubs who seem more willing to “splash the cash” for big-name player signings.

Considering the manager’s record, Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has stated that the criticism of Wenger is “out of order,” and that he believes the Frenchman will remain in charge at the Emirates at least until 2011, when his current contract expires.

Former Gunner defender Lee Dixon agrees, telling the London Evening Standard that “I am gob-smacked that people have started calling for his head. People are very short-sighted. It is the modern-day supporter who wants success yesterday.”

“Yes, we have gone four seasons without a trophy and have been off the pace in the Premier League this season, which is Wenger’s trophy priority, but he is as frustrated as anyone else,” continued Dixon, who maintains Arsenal will soon deliver silverware once again.

“He feels the frustration just like anyone else,” Dixon added. “He has produced one of the best training grounds in the world, one of the best stadiums in the world and some of the most attractive football ever been played. And people still just say ‘we haven’t won anything.’ They just have to be a bit more patient.”

Support is also coming from fans who feel that fellow supporters should remain faithful to the club and its successful manager as it heads forward for the 2009-10 season. In fact, hundreds of Arsenal supporters will take part in a march before Sunday’s home match with Stoke City to show their support for Wenger and help persuade the manager not to leave for Real Madrid this summer. This “march of solidarity” is being organized by the supporters group RedAction.

And the Arsenal Supporters Trust, which was established in 2003 to promote the interest of facilitate involvement of supporters who own shares in the club, has released a statement on its web site on the matter, saying, “Arsene Wenger is one of the greatest managers Arsenal has ever had. In the last few years he has performed arguably his best work by continuing to deliver Champions League football within the financial constraints created by the move to the Emirates stadium.

“Arsene must stay but if there is a need for change it is to the parameters within which he has been forced to work. The Trust met with impressive new chief executive Ivan Gazidis last week. He understands the importance of providing both the funds and hands-on support for the manager in the transfer market so that Arsene can complete his work and take Arsenal back to the top. All shareholders, large and small, should unite behind this plan and play their respective parts in it.”