Arsenal have no plans to recall Marquinhos from his loan with Nantes in January at the moment despite a tricky start to life in Ligue 1, football.london understands. The 20-year-old has made just five appearances totalling 125 minutes of action for the French club so far.
However, he has been missing from the last five squads having taken a break from his loan to play in the World Pan America Games. The Arsenal loanee started all three group stage matches, the semi-final win over Mexico and the final with Chile.
A 1-1 draw was separated by a penalty shootout which saw Marquinhos' team win and lift the trophy. During the tournament, Marquinhos assisted three times including from two corners against Honduras.
The lack of minutes in France after an equally disappointing time at Norwich City last season does not bode particularly well for the hope of breaking into the Arsenal first team. With the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard, Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira all capable of playing in wide areas and ahead of him in the pecking order, the task is monumental.
Not to mention the hope from many that the club will be going into the market to reinforce the forward line even further. Links to Wolves’ forward Pedro Neto have not gone anywhere.
Marquinhos will need to fight his way back into the Nantes team when he returns from the Pan America Games tournament celebrations. The only way in which he has a chance is by playing more regularly.
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Nantes are ninth in the table and are not blessed with goals in their wide areas. Moses Simon has the most with three on the left, with Marcus Coco and Abdoul Kader Bamba adding two between them on the right.
There's clearly an opportunity for the young Brazilian to make an impact and find more time on the field when he returns. From the information that football.london is getting, it appears that Arsenal, at the moment, are planning on letting things play out.
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