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In the days leading up to Bournemouth’s visit to the Emirates Stadium, Reiss Nelson was pondering perhaps the most significant question of his career so far. Arsenal, the team he had grown up supporting and whose academy he had joined at the age of nine, had indicated a willingness to extend a contract that was due to expire at the end of the season. As he himself had said earlier in the season, he wanted to stay in north London.
However, indications of interest have arrived from elsewhere, including Premier League side Brighton and Nice of Ligue 1. Having not so much as made Mikel Arteta’s squad for the last two Premier League games, Nelson was ready to consider options away from the Emirates Stadium, sources have told CBS Sports.
Had it not been for an ankle injury suffered by Eddie Nketiah in the days before Saturday’s game, Nelson might well have found himself out of the 20–man group again. What happened next is destined for the annals of Arsenal folklore; even if Arteta’s side do not win the Premier League title this season no one will ever forget the explosive jubilance that greeted Nelson’s swing of his left boot in the 98th minute. It was an instant that might have changed the course of the Gunners’ season, will it do the same for the player’s career?
Before Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe, Nelson was considered the jewel in the Hale End crown, a future star who Arsene Wenger viewed as one of the best youngsters the club had ever produced. An explosive start to a loan spell at Hoffenheim in 2018 brought with it talk of a place in the England squad for the then 19-year-old. Even as Arsenal struggled in the following years, Nelson could console himself that the club were being managed by Arteta, who he had trained alongside when first being blooded into the first team. The Spaniard’s first matchday squad saw the academy graduate favored over club-record signing Nicolas Pepe and even now…
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