Given Arsenal’s game with Bodo/Glimt tonight is sandwiched in between clashes against Tottenham and Liverpool, there is a danger of it paling into insignificance.
Not for Reiss Nelson, though, who will view tonight’s Europa League group stage game as the start of him getting his Arsenal career back on track. The winger has been out injured since August with a quadriceps issue, but he is now fit again and eager to make his mark.
Nelson, who spent last season on loan at Dutch side Feyenoord, is into the final year of his contract but Arteta has left the door open for him to secure a new one if he performs this season.
“Yeah, 100 per cent,” said Arteta, when asked by Standard Sport if Nelson could sign a new deal instead of leaving for free next summer. “That is why he is here, because we want to have that opportunity with him. He was willing to take that opportunity and again it’s down to him to show it now on the pitch.
“Out there [in training] he is showing it every day, how he is working, a lot of things that he has changed and improved in many things that, in our opinion, could have been better. Now he is on the right track, now he needs to perform.”
There was an incredible amount of hype around Nelson when he was coming through the Arsenal academy, arguably even more so than the likes of Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe.
Both of those two, however, are younger than Nelson and they have left him trailing in their wake as Nelson’s career has stalled and stuttered. Although his loan spell at Feyenoord last season suggested he may turned a corner and it is why Arsenal decided to keep him this summer.
“After the spell that he had last year on loan, we wanted him back to see if there are any changes, and there’s a prospect that we can really take to the next level,” Arteta said. “We think the potential is there and we think we’ve seen something in Reiss that is special.”
Arteta knows Nelson well as the Spaniard coached him when he was 16 and doing his coaching badges. When Arteta returned to Arsenal in 2019 as head coach, Nelson was one of the players he was most excited about working with him.
“He was that good when he was young that everything was too easy for him,” said Arteta in January 2020. “I think he has the potential to do whatever he wants.”
Things have not gone to plan for Nelson since then, but Arsenal’s Europa League run this season could change that for him. Arteta is expected to make changes tonight, possibly as many as 10, as he looks to rest players ahead of Sunday’s game with Liverpool.
October is a packed month for Arsenal, with the Gunners having nine games in 30 days, and Arteta has told the squad they will all play a part. That will be music to Nelson’s ears and on paper Bodo/Glimt look like an ideal team for him to announce his comeback.
The Norwegian side come from a town which is just north of the Arctic Circle and has a population that is less than Emirates Stadium. They have punched above their weight in recent years, famously beating Roma 6-1 in the Europa Conference League last season.
Arsenal, however, should prove too much for them and Nelson will be out to make sure that is the case.
