Arsenal: Reiss Nelson, your time has come

With so little happening on the Arsenal wings all of last season, the time has come for Reiss Nelson to step into the void and turn that around.

Arsenal are into the second year of transition as the Unai Emery era continues to unfold. The 1st year had many ups and downs, with a heartbreaking end for the club in what was a first season with mixed emotions.

Unai Emery now has a big task on his hands with quite a limited amount of resources because of the lack of Champions League football for the third consecutive season.

The restricted budget of the Gunners won’t allow them to buy big names in the market, which paves the way for the youngsters to lay their feet with authority and make some impact on the grandest stage. And this time I am especially talking about Reiss Nelson.

The lack of natural wingers has cost the Gunners big time because Emery’s high intensity style of play could not come into existence. It has seemed, during the course of the season, that the team has always lacked width. Emery resorted to experimenting with the back three to prosper attacks through the flanks, but the wing backs have not been able to provide an optimal solution to this problem. Hence, it is seeming increasingly likely that the time of Reiss Nelson has now come.

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Reiss Nelson is one of the most brightest young prospects at Arsenal. The youngster was loaned to Hoffenheim at the start of last season where he made quite an impact, caught everybody’s attention and all the footballing world was impressed by the youngster’s agility, goalscoring ability, pace, dribbling and that knack for being in the right place at the right time.

It’s vital that he has that ability to play as a natural winger, a position at this club struggled with.  Aubameyang and Iwobi played as makeshifts and sometimes Emery relied on Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles playing as wing backs. But nothing covered for the clear void.

Nelson scored a total of nine goals in 31 appearances for the Bundesliga side, which included jaw-dropping stunners that a winger dreams of. He could prove to be the final piece in the Arsenal’s attacking jigsaw, joining with Aubameyang and Lacazette.

It will be worth seeing how much Emery regards the 19-year-old in this new era, but these kind of gems should be the ones that Emery must promote this coming season.

The season could prove to be a breakthrough season for the young Nelson and at the same time could solve the ongoing winger crisis.

Will Emery promote the young guns like Nelson, or will he opt for some other channels? Will this transfer window be a busy one or will it be the same old mistakes? Answers are bound to come!