Arsenal: Reiss Nelson will not be forgotten

Reiss Nelson scored twice in his senior debut for Hoffenheim on Saturday. The Arsenal winger is ensuring that he will not be forgotten while out on loan.

You could be easily forgiven for forgetting players like Gedion Zelalem, Chuba Akpom, Carl Jenkinson, and Joel Campbell ever existed. Their perennial loan deals, allied with long-term injury problems, have led to their presence in the Arsenal squad being consistently overlooked. It is easy for loan players to be forgotten about.

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Reiss Nelson is making sure that he is not another. The winger, who demanded a loan in the summer amid concerns that he was not going to be given enough game time, signed for Julian Nagelsmann’s Hoffenheim, recognising the young German coach as a someone who would be beneficial for his development and career.

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Nelson has struggled a little for opportunities at Hoffenheim. Although he scored on his debut from off the bench, he only made his first start on Saturday. The good news, though, is that that start yielded two goals as he led a furious second-half comeback in a 3-1 victory over Nurnberg. Nelson now has four goals 163 minutes of action this season for Hoffenheim, a staggering return for any player, nevermind a winger.

The two goals on this occasion were both excellent finishes. The first, a swivelled volley from just outside of the six-yard box, illustrated his quick thinking and natural instinct for where the goal is; the second displayed a creativity as, from a tight angle, he slammed the ball up and over the onrushing goalkeeper and into the roof of the net.

Nelson is also coming off an international break in which he scored twice for the England under-21s, including a terrific freekick from distance against Scotland. He was the talk of the Arsenal town before the weekend; now he truly is the name on everyone’s lips — some fans are even demanding that the Gunners recall him in January.

Nelson is an extremely bright and bold footballer. He genuinely believes that he deserves to be starting each and every game, even if, objectively, he doesn’t. That self-belief is a great credit to his own talent, but it could also undermine his development. It nearly led to him leaving Arsenal permanently in the summer, a move that would most probably have been detrimental to his career.

This loan move, then, is perfect for him. It satisfies, to some extent, his insatiable demand for game time, while also maintaining an element of long-term security, signing a new four-year deal with Arsenal.

How successful this loan season will be for Nelson remains to be seen. He has made a promising start and hopefully will be able to carve out a regular starting role for himself throughout the year. But, for now, he is simply ensuring that he will not be forgotten. He will not slip into loan limbo.