Arsenal news: Man City striker Erling Haaland has impressed with his goal scoring exploits this season, but Arsenal star Reiss Nelson is leading the way in one statistic.
Arsenal’s shot at winning the Premier League title race will come down to many fine margins, with another going in their favour last weekend. In a five-goal thriller at the Emirates Stadium, a 97th minute strike from Reiss Nelson earned the Gunners all three points over Bournemouth as the crowd erupted at the sight of the goal.
Late goals, a deep squad and a touch of fortune will be needed for whichever side ends up on top by the end of May, with each week passing by giving the north London outfit a better chance at winning the title once again. The impressive feat of Nelson in the previous game certainly underlined all three going in the Gunners favour.
“I always saw the potential, the talent and the desire for him to do it, but he’s at a different level right now,” Mikel Arteta said on the winger after the Bournemouth clash. “I think emotionally, the experiences that he had helped him. Football-wise, it was my decision in the last two games not to play him because we had other options. But he was knocking on the door, he’s been training really good and it’s a good lesson for me and for the coaches that we need him and that he can be really important for the team.”
While the Hale End academy graduate has had few chances to impress this season, there are still some Premier League goal contributions to his name in key matches. The 23-year-old has three goals and two assists from just 84 minutes of league action so far this campaign.
With that sort of return, the youngster is averaging 5.29 goal contributions every 90 minutes, which clocks at over three-times the rate of return for Erling Haaland – who sits at 1.42. It’s a crazy statistic that underlines just how well Nelson has done in the limited time he has had on the pitch, though it isn’t worth reading into too much beyond that.
Those sorts of figures are unsustainable, with Haaland’s rate of return from playing most minutes this season even setting unrealistic standards. It remains to be seen how much more Nelson will be able to chip in before the end of the campaign, but he may have already delivered a title defining moment.
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