Arsenal loanees Karl Hein and Reiss Nelson are both yet to make their league debuts for their loan clubs, with the pair not playing any minutes again over the weekend.
Arsenal’s relatively small group of loan players this season have mostly found themselves immediately involved in match action.
Ismeal Kabia, Fabio Vieira, Maldini Kacurri, Jakub Kiwior, and Oleksandr Zinchenko all started the very first game they were available for, and they’ve continued to make the starting lineup ever since.
Lucas Nygaard did have a couple of games on the bench, but he made his first start over the weekend. Yet it’s a different story for Karl Hein and Reiss Nelson so far.
Hein joined Werder Bremen a month ago, and he’s been eligible to make the bench for the team three times, but he hasn’t played a minute on the pitch. It’s difficult to break into a team as a goalkeeper, so he’ll hope to get a chance to impress sooner rather than later.
Nelson joined Brentford on deadline day, and after making the bench against Chelsea he appeared as a substitute against Aston Villa in the League Cup. But in the Premier League on Saturday, he was completely absent from the squad to face Fulham.
It’s unclear whether Nelson was fit for selection, with the Brentford website simply stating that he was “not included”. If he was fit, then it’s worrying he wasn’t picked for the bench. If he wasn’t fit, then that’s also a concern after his lengthy injury absences last season.
A month into Hein’s loan and three weeks into Nelson’s, it’s not time to start panicking just yet. But whilst six of Arsenal’s eight loanees have clearly been signed for regular minutes, there will be early concerns about the other two.