Arsenal loanee Reiss Nelson made his first appearance for Brentford in over a month on Monday, appearing against Macclesfield in the FA Cup.
Reiss Nelson’s loan spell to Brentford hasn’t been a particularly productive one lately, with the winger failing to appear in any of the team’s last five Premier League games.
The most recent of those was obviously against parent club Arsenal, so Nelson was ineligible. But he didn’t appear in any of the other games despite being fit to make the bench in three of them.
Before this week, Nelson’s last appearance for Brentford had been away to Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup on January 10th. Over a month later, he returned to the starting lineup for another FA Cup match away to Macclesfield on Monday.
The game was somewhat underwhelming for Brentford, as they only narrowly scraped past lower-league Macclesfield courtesy of an own goal.
Nelson played the first 61 minutes of the contest, putting one shot on target but largely having a quiet game. He’ll be pleased at least to have been playing again, and to see Brentford progressing. Unless things change, his next chance to play might be in the next round.
Over five months since moving on loan, Nelson has played 50 minutes of Premier League football. Part of that has been due to an illness in September and an injury setback in December, but that only accounts for six of the 21 league games for which he’s been eligible.
Nelson’s move to Brentford included an option to buy, but it seems exceedingly unlikely the team will activate it at this stage. The 26-year-old needs to force his way into the Premier League lineup, and it’s hard to do that if he’s not even getting substitute minutes in the competition.
For now, it seems like the winger will be returning to Arsenal at the end of his loan this summer.