Arsenal’s Matt Macey has left the club on a one-month loan.

He will spend the rest of January with Accrington Stanley in League Two.

Although initially only a one-month deal, we’ve seen this sort of thing turn in to a rest-of-the-season arrangement depending on how well the player performs and the loan club’s requirements and given the wording on Accrington’s website it would seem that the former is the case. They detail it as an ‘initial’ one-month loan.

Macey, who has featured on the bench for the first-team this season on two occasions, has been the regular under-21 keeper this year with seven appearances so far. He made 19 in total during 2013/14.

Speaking to the official Acrington Stanley website, Macey said:

“I’ve been looking to get out on loan all season but due to injuries it didn’t quite happen

“Part of developing into a top goalkeeper is going and learning your trade lower down the leagues and learn proper football, that’s what people say. It’s about adding that competitive edge to your game.

“I went away to Austria with the Arsenal first team in pre-season which was a good experience and then just at the beginning of November I was on the first team bench for a couple of games. Now goalkeepers are back from injury and it’s time for me to come out and play some proper football.”

Accrington’s manager, John Coleman, added:

“League football experience is something that you can’t put a price on and if you look at the goalkeepers that have come through our ranks and gone on to have great careers, Carl Ikeme, Darren Randolph, Rob Elliot and Marcus Bettinelli to name but four, they’ve catapulted their careers by playing games for Accrington”