Four months into the season, Arsenal’s loanees have had time to settle at their temporary clubs, so let’s have a look at how each of them is doing.
Krystian Bielik
- Position: Centre-back/Defensive Midfield
- Loaned to: Charlton – League One
- Appearances: 12
- Goals: 2
- Clean sheets: 4
Krystian Bielik started the campaign in decent form, before picking up another injury. That sparked concerns that this season could turn out the same way as his last one, where he barely played. However, the defender has since returned to the pitch and put together a run of eight consecutive league appearances.
Bielik has moved back and forth between the Charlton defence and defensive midfield since joining, without once putting together a run of more than three games in the same position. His appearances at centre-back appeared to be going better, with consecutive clean sheets in his last three starts, but currently, he’s back in midfield again.
The main thing is that Bielik is staying fit, since recovering from that injury in September. Arsenal already have enough centre-backs taking regular injury breaks, so the Polish u21 international needs to keep proving he can be more reliable.
Loan rating: 7/10
Calum Chambers
- Position: Centre-back/Defensive Midfield
- Loaned to: Fulham – Premier League
- Appearances: 11
- Clean sheets: 1
On the surface, Chambers has had a very similar loan spell to Bielik. He started as a first-choice centre-back, before dropping out of the team and picking up an injury. Then recently he moved to defensive midfield.
However, the Englishman isn’t quite getting the same rave reviews as his Polish counterpart. In fairness, he’s playing in a much more competitive league, but Chambers is still yet to win over the Fulham fans. Bottom of the league having conceded more goals than any other team, it’s not hard to see why they’re upset.
Claudio Ranieri seems to have taken to the defender though, starting him consistently since his arrival. Hopefully, this is the start of a good run of games.
Loan rating: 5/10
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David Ospina
- Position: Goalkeeper
- Loaned to: Napoli – Serie A
- Appearances: 13
- Clean sheets: 3
Moving on to the goalkeepers, David Ospina has made a good start to life in Italy. At first, the fans weren’t sure about the club bringing in a goalkeeper who was way down the pecking order with Arsenal, but he’s won them over pretty quickly.
Despite only keeping a limited number of clean sheets, Ospina has put in a fair few impressive performances, particularly in the Champions League. Keeping a clean sheet in the win over Liverpool and earning Napoli two draws against PSG with his saves can’t do any harm to his reputation.
In fact, the rumours are that Napoli now want to activate their option-to-buy, regardless of whether Ospina reaches the 30-appearance mark (when the purchase would become compulsory). That’s ideal for Arsenal, who would really prefer to move him on at this stage.
It hasn’t been a completely perfect start to the campaign for Ospina, considering the number of goals he has let in. Plus, he’s still not starting every single game for Napoli. Nonetheless, things are going pretty well.
Loan rating: 7.5/10
Matt Macey
- Position: Goalkeeper
- Loaned to: Plymouth Argyle – League One
- Appearances: 25
- Clean sheets: 4
As you can see, Macey is certainly getting a lot of game time with Plymouth, but that’s definitely not translating into clean sheets. At first, the Plymouth fans tended to blame this on the defence, and they insisted Macey was doing a good job.
However, they’ve since grown a bit more impatient with the goalkeeper, particularly when it comes to parrying the ball back into danger. The defence is still just as much to blame too, but Macey’s grace period isn’t lasting, with Plymouth in the bottom three and conceding another three goals at the weekend.
The one positive is a couple of penalty saves from the goalkeeper. Otherwise, his performances need to improve for him to have a chance at Arsenal.
Loan rating: 5/10
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Kelechi Nwakali
- Position: Central Midfield
- Loaned to: FC Porto B – Ledman Liga Pro
- Appearances: 6
Though he went on loan to Porto, Nwakali was always expected to start off playing for their B team. The hope was that if he impressed at that level, the senior side might start calling.
Things haven’t gone as planned. After four appearances by September 1st, Nwakali then pretty much dropped out of contention completely. He’s only made two appearances since then, a couple of 16-minute substitute showings in late October and early December.
The midfielder doesn’t always even make the Porto B squad anymore. The only positive for the campaign so far is that he got a call-up to the Nigeria national team. Even that was a while ago now. Hopefully, the fact he got a brief chance at the start of this month means he might edge his way back into contention.
Loan rating: 2/10
Takuma Asano
- Position: Second Striker
- Loaned to: Hannover 96 – Bundesliga
- Appearances: 8
- Goals: 1
- Assists: 1
Asano had a fantastic pre-season with Hannover, scoring or assisting pretty much every game in a long preparation period. When the season began, he kept that going with a goal and assist in his first game, but didn’t so well in his first three league games.
After that, he dropped to the bench, making a couple of brief substitute appearances. Then an injury forced him out of the team, and he didn’t return until last weekend.
If we only look at the competitive matches, Asano really needs to be making more of an impact. He certainly needs more time on the pitch. However, he did start in Hannover’s 1-1 draw on Sunday, playing 78 minutes, his longest appearance so far.
With any luck, that’s a sign that he’ll be involved more often from now on. So far, though, it’s hard to find too many positives.
Loan rating: 3/10
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Reiss Nelson
- Position: Winger
- Loaned to: Hoffenheim – Bundesliga
- Appearances: 15
- Goals: 6
- Assists: 1
Nelson is the undisputed star of Arsenal’s loanees so far this season. An impressive six goals in ten league appearances (four starts) shows just how quickly he’s adapted to life at senior level. They’ve all been important goals as well, either giving Hoffenheim the lead, drawing them level or getting them back into a game from multiple goals down.
That’s not to say everything has been perfect. Sport Bild recently highlighted that Nelson’s dribbling could improve, even if his pace is unmatched in the Hoffenheim team. Plus, manager Julian Nagelsmann suggested the winger needed to work on his defensive contribution to the team, and that’s why he’s mostly being introduced from the bench.
Hopefully, that’s the sort of thing the Hoffenheim boss will help him to work on this season.
Despite one or two performances showing he still has room to get better, Nelson is undoubtedly having a massive impact at Hoffenheim. That’s exactly what you want from an 18-year-old. With any luck, the rest will come with more experience.