Will Reiss Nelson ever get a run in the Arsenal first team?

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 04: Reiss Nelson of Arsenal celebrates at full time after scoring the winning goal during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and AFC Bournemouth at Emirates Stadium on March 04, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

A lot of people think that Reiss Nelson hasn’t played much, but he should’ve. It could be just me, but there are times when I believe that only limited game time is preventing him from exploding.

That brings up game time. The 24-year-old has promised to fight for his spot at the Emirates Stadium and make the most of his chances.

Last Sunday, the Gunners lost 2-0 to Liverpool. Surprisingly, it was only he winger’s fourth start of the season. In and of itself, that loss hurt Nelson’s hopes of getting into the Arsenal team. Mikel Arteta would have no doubt thought of putting him on the left wing if they had won.

Some might say that he would be better off going on loan from Arsenal, but the Hale End graduate says that might not be the case.

Nelson said in the Standard, when asked if he was more interested in playing regularly or going on loan, “Yeah,”

“I have said this before, but Arsenal is my club since I was eight years old. Of course, I want to be playing much more than I am right now.

“It’s good to be coming off the bench, but I want to be starting. I feel like I am proving myself every day in training, so with this momentum, I want to go on and keep playing more.

“I signed my contract; I am here now, and I have just got to prove to the boss that I deserve more minutes.

“Like I said, when I get chances to play, I can prove myself and show everyone what I can do.”

Since Gabriel Martinelli is having a bad time, it will be interesting to see if Nelson stays in Arteta’s starting eleven when Arsenal play next. Having said that, do you think Nelson will ever be able to break into this Arsenal team and one day play every week?

Daniel O


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11 Comments

  1. I believe Nelson has that potential but Arteta is not good enough to get him there. How many players have Arteta coached to the first team regular? None.vMind you, Saka, Smith Rowe and Martinelli have been playing for the first team before he came. Let Arteta show us his own brought -up. Arsenal has so many good young boys waiting to get the call to be tested, but Arteta is only interested in buying finished products. It took another coach to coach Salina before Arteta gave him a chance. Look at Maimo at Man. U, if he’s at Arsenal Arteta will never start him ahead of the more experienced players. Look at the young players De Zerbi is promoting and using regularly. Arsenal should replace Arteta with a world class coach if he fails to win a trophy this season.

  2. Can’t see any future for Reiss Nelson in this Arsenal team tbh. I don’t rate him. The other day he had a good chance to lob the ball over a badly placed Liverpool goalkeeper but he fluffed his line badly.
    If Arsenal recruit a striker (most likely in the summer) and Jesus is shifted to the wings, that’d probably sound the death knell on Nelson’s Arsenal career.
    It was a smart move to have given him a new contract. The club can get some good money from his sale rather than lose him on a free.

  3. With all due respect, Arsenal has one of the most tactically poor coaches among the big clubs, in Arteta. However, I’ll not blame an inexperience coach, who has not coached anywhere before being appointed. I’ll only blame the hierarchy who refuse to search for another young coach like Fulham’s Silva.
    On Nelson, please I want every Arsenal fan to revisit our game with Nottingham Forest last season and observe what happened when he took over from injured Saka on the 26th munite of that game. We scored another four goals with Nelson scoring two and assisting Partey on one. UP TILL DATE, ARTETA HAS NEVER STARTED NELSON ON THE RIGHT OF ATTACK WITH THE MAIN SQUAD. On few occasions he started him,check the bunch of poor performers he’ll start him with. To him, its cast on stone that a left footer must start from the right of attack. He forgot that he also won Man City this season in the league, for the first time, when he started a right footed Gabriel Jesus on the right, as a result of injury to Saka. I’m not against Saka, but must he start all the games on the right?
    However, the worst scenario is that of Smith Rowe. If there’s any player that shows signs of replacing Debruyne in the Premiership, that player is Smith Rowe. Season before last, he shone like an Angel. Arteta who hardly go in terms with right footed midfielders, deliberately kicked him out, siting fictitious injuries claims. You and I believed him.
    This season, as a result of injury to his anoited Odegaard, who only struggle to make the bench, Smith Rowe started against Sheffield United in his natural attacking midfield position. Arsenal played like the best team in Europe. Within 58 minutes, this Nketiah that he is trying to deceive fans into believing that he’s not a good striker, displayed what made him to be England U21 record goal scorer, by banging in hat trick.
    Immediately, ‘leprosy’ catched Smith Rowe, according to Arteta, because of the fact that fans will ask questions in the next game why he did not start.
    Now after coming back from ‘injury ‘, when many fans has forgotten what transpired, Arteta never look on his way again. He never even give him a little time from the bench. The three occasions he grudgingly put him were on the 86th munite; 88th munite and 87th munite. Tell me what any good player can do on those limited occasions?

    Any day Arsenal authorities remember that Arteta is there problem, the club will excel.

  4. Nelson’s best hope is a run in the cups.
    Oh wait…
    Perhaps he should have scored against Liverpool when he had that golden chance and not be wasteful.
    He had his chance.

  5. Arteta lost this game! Not the players!
    Arteta is fond of disappointing the team at this stage of the season.
    He started to kill the game by removing Nelson for Martinelli, it made no difference.
    Even the blind knows that Arsenal is bound to conceded with Jorginho on the pitch!
    So why not remove him for Eddie and drop Havertz into midfield.
    Havertz did nothing wrong! He is not the only person who missed gilt edge chances!

    Arsenal actually needs not just a striker(sic) but 2 very strong wingers who can lead the line upfront naturally comfortably.
    Not just any how striker! Arsenal need 2 more Jesus-mould strikers.
    Anyone who understands Artetaball will see that it takes a driver kind of player to lead the line.
    Artetaball requires basically 2 kind of outfield players; drivers and occupiers.
    It is sad to see that the squad is really short on these 2 fronts.

    Drivers – Saka, Jesus, Eddie, Martinelli, Nelson, Odegaard, Zinny, Timbre.
    Occupiers – Saliba, Magalhaes, Kiwior, Tomiyasu, White, Partey, Rice, Havertz.
    All other guys do not add anything special to the squad, they are clear-cut tactical misfits! Name them!
    I said it from day one of Vieira, Trossard, and Jorginho, that they will be the reason Arteta will be sacked!
    Because they will always be hit and miss! Anytime, any day!

    Arsenal look very solid both defensively and offensively when they are humble and level-headed.
    Nothing is wrong with Arsenal’s attack, if you are not scoring you should be disciplined enough not to be conceding.
    Arteta should stop feeling arrogant and be humble enough to keep his team’s defensive shape and mentality going when the goals are not coming.
    No need to start panicking and gambling with substitutions.
    Arsenal look very solid both defensively and offensively when they are humble and level-headed.

    The lineups against Fulham and Liverpool were not bad at all. I strongly agree with Arteta, he got them right. The challenges were only in the substitutions and player instructions.

    Arteta should buy Onana from Everton and Chalobah from Chelsea, then give Jakub Kiwior more game time, and also promote Lino Sousa from the Academy.

    Lino Sousa from the Arsenal Academy is a world talent for his age. He stands at 186cm with exceptional technique. He is a natural defender who can completely hold his own both as CB and DM. He is left-footed, very speedy and has the great engine to play box-to-box both as SB and CM. This guy can fill the Xhaka role greatly.

    Jakub Kiwior should be trusted more to play anywhere across the central midfield and defence. He is so so underrated and underutilized.

    Vieira, Trossard, Jorginho, Elneny, Cedric, and Smith Rowe should all be let go.
    The nonsense experience that Arteta is looking for by keeping deadwoods and tactical misfits are the reasons for the teams decline.

    Smith Rowe is not defensive enough to play in the 8 in the current Arteta system, and he is even not a natural winger. He can’t play on the wings for Arsenal at the moment. Arteta football favors widemen who can naturally fill in as wingbacks in a back5, back4 or even a back6 system, to play as his wing forwards. This is why Jesus, Nelson, Saka, and Martinelli are very crucial. Marquinhos should be called back from loan.

    If Havertz with all his talents of size and technique will not evolve his defensive game ethics as an 8, and be able to play cover as a 6 and sideback, then he too has to either leave or start to sit on the bench till he learns his Arsenal-Arteta trade well enough to deserve minutes on the pitch.

    1. Arteta wasn’t playing! Arteta didn’t miss chance after chance, Arteta didn’t hit the bar, Arteta didn’t head in the own goal, Arteta didn’t leave Diaz unmarked to score the second goal, Arteta wasn’t responsible for us losing the game.

  6. I don’t think he’s been given a fair shake. He helped keep our season going last season with some key goals and moments, and I can’t remember him playing badly once since the start of last season. Why he’s had so few opportunities is very strange to me, particularly at times like these when the others aren’t pulling up any trees…

  7. He shouldn’t even be at the club along with a few others.
    We try and make out we are a big club but we are so far from it.

    Every season same old thing, the we can’t compete in all trophies comes up.
    Why ?
    Because bloody Nelson and Eddie etc aren’t good enough to step in.

    We have to field our first eleven to stand a chance of winning.
    We can’t rest our Saka’s etc.

  8. He was out best player on Sunday and still got taken off. Saka had a 2/10 performance, played like a hungover fat bloke on in a pub team and stayed on instead. Why not give him a run? Jesus, Eddie, Martinelli, Saka, Havertz and Trossard have all been rubbish this season and Nelson still never gets a chance?

    Nelson should go and get that run somewhere else, he will be a top player given the chance.

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