Arsenal: Reiss Nelson hesitation when replacing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Arsenal certainly has an immensely talented young man in Reiss Nelson, but is he ready to fully take over for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain? Well, there’s hesitation.

I believe I was one of the many stoking the flames of belief that Reiss Nelson could absolutely take over for either Hector Bellerin or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, whichever need arose first at Arsenal. He just showed us so much in preseason, with relatively little drawback, if any, that it seemed too obvious.

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But now that the Evening Standard is suggesting that Nelson could legitimately step in for Oxlade-Chamberlain if the latter is sold to Chelsea, I’m having my misgivings. It isn’t anything Nelson has done, he’s a stud, it’s just what history has taught us.

Namely, that a 17 year old wonderkid is rarely ever a straight shot to Premier League consistency.

Let’s compare him to the man himself, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The Ox broke through right around the age of Reiss Nelson and we thought we had a gem for sure. There was no weakness to his game and he seemed to mix parts of play that weren’t mean to be mixed.

Here we are, seven or so years later and we are just now getting the best out of the Ox. Sure, injuries were a major part of what got in the way, but even beyond that, the consistency was hard to come by, even in the early years.

The same can be said of Alex Iwobi. His brief glimpses of brilliance gave way to an abysmal year that saw him fall down to the U23s.

There is no guarantee that Nelson would face injury problems or quickly fall out of form, but there is more history pointing to that than there is pointing to a legendary, unchecked run up the food chain and into the glory days.

You have to anticipate snafus, we should know that by now. If snafus didn’t exist, we’d have a midfield run by Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere and they’d be the captain’s of their respective international sides.

Selling the Ox and replacing him straight up with Nelson is putting way too many eggs in a basket that hasn’t even been tested yet. There is absolutely a chance that he would catch on. I’d say a decent chance. But the risk involved is all we need to know. There is no need to take that risk.

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Oxlade-Chamberlain has a big part to play this year and Wenger-willing, the only blue shirt he will be accomplishing it in will be the Gunner’s away kit.