Arsenal's Chuba Akpom Must Prove Premier League Potential at Nottingham Forest

Chuba Akpom will play out the rest of the season in the Championship, having joined Nottingham Forest on loan. It’s a crucial time for the young star; this spell could be a litmus test for his chances of making the grade with the Gunners.

We already know Arsene Wenger thinks incredibly highly of Akpom. As an academy graduate, he is a long-term project for the club. Back in 2012, Wenger told the club's official website:

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He has personality [and] he has quality. Hopefully he will join us very quickly. It could happen very soon.

He’s more a guy who likes to participate in the build up, a guy who is brave, a guy who makes good runs and is not a typical goal chaser. Where he must improve is to finish things off. But he creates for others, he creates for himself, and just needs to be a bit calmer for the finishing. That’s something he will get easily. 

"

Wenger was right: Akpom developed in to a prolific scorer at youth level. He’s continued that development in the international arena too, notching for the England U20 side during the current break.

Christopher Lee/Getty Images

Having tracked Akpom’s progress for so long, Arsenal are determined to see him fulfil his potential with the club.

When it seemed as if the young forward was considering leaving Arsenal upon the expiration of his contract in the summer, the Gunners boss cleared the decks to ensure Akpom would receive opportunities in the first team. Joel Campbell, Yaya Sanogo and Lukas Podolski were all shipped out on loan, which allowed Akpom to jump up the pecking order.

He’s consequently made a number of cameo appearances this season. Akpom has come on as a sub seven times this season, with three of those appearances coming in the Premier League. However, he hasn’t started a senior match in 2014/15. With the likes of Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck ahead of him in the queue for a first-team place, regular football remains a pipe dream.

That’s why this move to Forest is so important. It’s a chance to demonstrate what he can do at a highly competitive level.

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Delighted to have joined @Official_NFFC on loan. Can't wait to get started and meet up with the squad after the internationals

— Chuba Akpom (@cakpom) March 26, 2015"

Doubts persist over Akpom’s ability to translate his domination of youth football to the senior stage. Like many young stars of the game, his supremacy over his contemporaries is in part due to his accelerated physical development. At times, Akpom has simply looked too quick and too strong for teenage opposition.

Now, he will test himself against sterner, stronger opposition. Akpom has already had relatively unremarkable loan spells with Brentford and Coventry City in the past. This time, he knows he must make an impact if he is to force himself into Wenger’s thinking for next season.

With doubts over the long-term futures of some of Arsenal’s contingent of strikers, there is definitely an opportunity for Akpom to cement a place in Wenger’s squad. Gunners fans would love nothing more than to see a homegrown striker make the grade at Arsenal for the first time in several decades.

An impressive run at Forest would be proof that Akpom can deliver on his enormous potential. The eyes of the Arsenal fans, and Wenger himself, will be trained on the young striker for the next couple of months.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and is following the club from a London base throughout the 2014-15 season. Follow him on Twitter here.