Reiss Nelson stat emphasises how his loan spell has gone

Reiss Nelson stat emphasises how his loan spell has gone

Reiss Nelson played 45 minutes for Brentford at the weekend, almost matching his minutes for the entire remainder of the Premier League season so far.

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Reiss Nelson came on at half-time of Brentford’s Premier League match against Everton on Saturday, replacing Mikkel Damsgaard in a 2-2 draw with David Moyes’ side.

Though he only played half of the match, the appearance was Nelson’s longest of the entire Premier League campaign so far.

In fact, Nelson had only played 55 Premier League minutes in the first seven months of his loan spell, so he wasn’t far off matching that total in one game on Sunday.

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Nelson has made a few starts for Brentford this season, but all of them have come in the cup competitions.

The winger started in wins over Sheffield Wednesday and Macclesfield in the FA Cup, he came on and scored in the penalty shootout against Aston Villa in the League Cup, and he bagged a goal and an assist against Grimsby Town in a start in the same competition.

Sadly, Nelson was injured for Brentford’s FA Cup defeat to West Ham and their League Cup defeat to Manchester City, so that’s where his starting opportunities ended.

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Those injuries have certainly played a part in Nelson’s disappointing campaign so far, as he’s had three separate setbacks totalling 10 games out of action. Including the two Arsenal matches, that makes 12 games where he was unavailable to feature.

All the same, that leaves another 23 matches when he was fit and eligible, and he’s started three of those – coming off the bench in another nine.

Ultimately, it’s hard to argue that Nelson has played significantly more than he would have with Arsenal, let alone on a different loan. The 26-year-old played 641 first-team minutes in his last full season with the Gunners, he’s up to 321 minutes this campaign.

Max Dowman and Ethan Nwaneri have both played more than that for Arsenal this season. Third-choice goalkeeper Tommy Setford is the only player in Arsenal’s senior squad to play less.

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Brentford still have another six games to play, and perhaps Saturday’s substitution suggests Keith Andrews is ready to give Nelson some chances during this final stretch. A goal against Manchester City in May would certainly make many at his parent club happy.

But Nelson’s loan to Brentford looks to be playing out in largely the same way as his loan to Fulham last season did, and it’s hard to see him getting a big transfer or breaking back into the Arsenal team this summer.