Benik Afobe to join Reading on loan

Young Arsenal striker Benik Afobe is joining Championship side Reading on loan until the end of the season, the Arsenal website has confirmed. Afobe has spent much of this season injured, but has played in the reserves recently; a move to a club that will allow him first-team football is a great chance. Particularly Reading, who are currently second in the Championship, in an automatic promotion place and five points off the top.

This is not Afobe's first trip outside the bounds of the Arsenal system; he featured 36 times for Huddersfield Town in League One last year, scoring eight times. With the end of the season nearing that kind of haul would be ludicrous to expect, but hopefully he can hit the back of the net a few times and help get Reading up to the Premier League. Or not, I guess, I have no particular attachment to Reading, I just like when our players are successful.

Here are the teams Afobe and Reading will face the rest of the season:

24 March: Blackpool (H)
31 March: West Ham United (A)
6 April: Leeds United (H)
10 April: Brighton (A)
13 April: Southampton (A)
17 April: Nottingham Forest (H)
21 April: Crystal Palace (H)
28 April: Birmingham City (A)