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#2 Reiss Nelson
One of the crown jewels to be produced by Arsenal’s academy over the past few years, wide forward Reiss Nelson has already had one successful loan move; he spent the entirety of 2018/19 in the Bundesliga with Hoffenheim. And while he didn’t start many games, he certainly had an impact, scoring 7 goals in his 23 appearances and even had a bizarre music video dedicated to him (and fellow English youngster Jadon Sancho) on the official Bundesliga YouTube channel.
When he wasn’t sent on another loan this summer it seemed like 2019/20 could be the year for Nelson to make a breakthrough at the Emirates, but thus far that hasn’t been the case. The England U-21 star did begin the season in the Gunners’ starting line-up, but after a couple of frustrating performances – he saw his first Arsenal goal disallowed by VAR during an August match with Burnley – he’s slipped down the pecking order.
Not only has Unai Emery preferred to use his bigger name players like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe as Arsenal’s first choice wide forwards, but he’s also seemingly moved the even younger Bukayo Saka ahead of Nelson in the queue. And while Saka has performed excellently at times, it’s hard to grasp why.
Nelson is a brilliant instinctive finisher, and while his dribbling could do with some work – statistics suggest he’s unsuccessful in his dribbles more than he’s successful – the raw talent is definitely there, as he showed in a Man of the Match-level performance in the EFL Cup against Nottingham Forest in what was a rare start for him.
At 19 it’s imperative that Nelson gains more first-team experience, and most importantly more minutes; Hoffenheim was good for his development but now he needs to be starting week-in, week-out. With that in mind, a January loan move to a lower-level Premier League side could work wonders for him.
