Pain in the Arsenal
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Arsenal: 5 players who need to step up

By Ross Kennerley

Arsenal's Spanish manager Mikel Arteta gestures on the touchline during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates Stadium in London on September 26, 2021. - - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by Ian KINGTON / IKIMAGES / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by IAN KINGTON/IKIMAGES/AFP via Getty Images)
Arsenal's Spanish manager Mikel Arteta gestures on the touchline during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates Stadium in London on September 26, 2021. - - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by Ian KINGTON / IKIMAGES / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by IAN KINGTON/IKIMAGES/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Arsenal, Reiss Nelson
BRENTFORD, ENGLAND – AUGUST 13: Reiss Nelson of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Brentford and Arsenal at Brentford Community Stadium on August 13, 2021 in Brentford, England. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) /

4. Reiss Nelson

Reiss Nelson hasn’t played poorly for Feyenoord since joining them on a season-long loan… because he hasn’t played a single minute of football for us to make that judgement.

Issues with the intensity of his new side’s regime and his own fitness problems meant that he suffered a setback in his hopes for a competitive debut. However, he did complete 45 minutes in a behind-closed-doors friendly in the build-up to their most recent Eredivisie fixture, where he remained an unused substitute.

This is a huge season for the 21-year-old. The biggest of his career so far. Having been not even on the peripheries of the first team at Arsenal last season he needs a consistent run of fixtures – in what would be his first proper full season of football – to entice clubs across the continent that he is a talent worth investing in.

Feyenoord currently sit in fifth place in the Dutch league with a game in hand on those above him. Nelson needs to prove to Arne Slot that he’s deserving of a place in the two wide berths over Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Luis Sinisterra, who are currently ahead of him in the pecking order.

Now up to speed with Slot’s training methods and hopefully more settled in Rotterdam with his new teammates, the six matches (including two Europa Conference fixtures) are prime time for Nelson to establish himself in the team and make it his shirt to lose.

Continued…

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