Arsenal: Reiss Nelson still one big audition away from his goal

Arsenal were hoping for big things from Reiss Nelson during his Hoffenheim loan, and while it didn’t necessarily bedazzle, it moved him closer.

Arsenal teenager Reiss Nelson spoke out about the disciplinary issues that left him dropped from the Hoffenheim first-team, and it was far tamer than I think some of us might have expected. He arrived 20 minutes late to training and both he and manager Julian Nagelsmann have moved on from it, as adults do.

Throughout the process of the loan, Nelson has been adamant about his big objective in the Bundesliga – growing up, being more mature. You can tell just from the way he’s speaking that he has grown up considerably being at this club where he supposedly has no friends, and nothing else to really focus on other than his football.

Even regarding how he hasn’t scored since November 10th, he was quite clear about how little it perturbed him, saying, “Football is like that, you dip in form – especially at my age – but the main thing is you keep your focus.”

This is all well and good. It’s great to see him growing up and focusing more intently on his footballing from outside of his comfort zone. But for as wonderful as it is, he’s still not a shoe-in to be involved in first-team play by next season.

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And I think he knows that too, at least using the contest clues of his growth and maturation at Hoffenheim, where he has not been guaranteed playing time by any means.

As we know by now, Unai Emery chooses no favorites. Nelson obviously has a huge chance to solve a big problem at the Emirates, with the gross lack of wingers on the club, but he still has to prove that his growth translates to effectiveness on the pitch at his home club. Because as of right now, that’s the big thing that’s missing from his time at Hoffenheim – clear, on the pitch improvements.

The preseason is one chance for him to flaunt his improvements, but keep in mind that he was hugely effective last summer in the preseason as well and was deemed unfit for the first team, so this may be something we have to wait until the start of next season to truly see in action.

Thankfully, he’s a Gooner, and the ambition is certainly there, clear as day. So being back in the red and white will go a long way towards helping him over that final hurdle.