Reiss Nelson threatening to outshine Jadon Sancho in the Bundesliga

Jadon Sancho was in the headlines again this weekend, and rightly so. After a nervy first half, the England youngster helped Borussia Dortmund to a win over Bayern Munich and a seven-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga.

Yet Sancho wasn't the outstanding performer in the Bundesliga this weekend. In fact, he wasn't even the best 18-year-old Englishman in the Bundesliga this weekend. That accolade goes to Reiss Nelson, the Arsenal loanee who is lighting up Hoffenheim.

A few hours before the title race six-pointer in Dortmund, Nelson had come off the bench around 300 miles further south in Sinsheim. After just 93 seconds on the pitch, the young winger had pounced on a loose ball in the box and bundled in a winner for Hoffenheim against Augsburg.

It was Nelson's sixth goal of the season, making him the youngest non-German ever to reach that tally in Germany's top flight.

It was also his fifth goal in five games. Since the beginning of October, he has scored in all but one of his league appearances for Hoffenheim. Even in that one, he didn't go away empty-handed, grabbing an assist in a 4-0 rout of local rivals Stuttgart.

'He has an unbelievably good scoring rate,' said Hoffenheim head coach Julian Nagelsmann after the Augsburg game. 'We've seen that he has a great nose for goal.'

Nelson, who arrived late in the transfer window on loan from Arsenal, came to Hoffenheim chasing the promise of game time in the Bundesliga and Champions League.

He has taken to life in the Bundesliga even more quickly than Sancho did last year, and developed a fine rapport with fellow forward Joelinton, prompting Bild to dub the duo 'Joenelson'.

With no option to buy in the loan deal, the Hoffenheim fans know that Nelson will be gone again come the summer, but that has not stopped them growing fond of him. After his winner against Augsburg, he ran straight to the fence to celebrate with supporters.

Once there, Nelson gave a high-five to a young child, who cannot have been older than five or six. It was a warm moment, but also a stark reminder of how young Nelson himself is. If the kid was six, then the age gap between him and Nelson would have been the same as between Nelson and team-mate Adam Szalai.

A tall, confident winger who is smashing in goal after goal at the moment, it is easy to forget that Nelson is so young, and Nagelsmann has been careful to play down the hype.

'He is very carefree,' said Nagelsmann after the Augsburg game. 'On the one hand, that's good, but on the other hand, there are moments in a game, particularly if you are playing for a long period, when you need to be less carefree and a bit more serious.'

Nelson has certainly looked more effective as a substitute than when he has started, and Nagelsmann has previously said that the youngster's biggest challenge will not be to grab headlines, but to develop in the long term.

'It's about growing in a healthy way,' said Nagelsmann before last week's Champions League clash with Lyon. 'It's a bit like being a musician. One song can keep food on the table for a few weeks, but it's not about being a one hit wonder, it's about putting in good performances over a long period of time, ideally over 15 years.'

It will be Arsenal, not Hoffenheim, who ultimately reap the reward if Nelson is able to do that. Yet with a coach like Nagelsmann, who as the Bundesliga's youngest ever coach knows all too well the dangers of early hype, he is well-placed to start the process.

Even as Nelson scores ever more goals and makes ever more headlines, Nagelsmann seems to have found the perfect balance between carrot and stick, challenging and protecting Nelson in equal measure.

'It's a learning process, he doesn't have to do everything right,' said Nagelsmann on Saturday.

Perhaps not, but it seems that at the moment, Reiss Nelson is getting quite a lot of things right.