The memories will surely come flooding back for Donyell Malen. Perhaps in the minutes before arriving at the Emirates Stadium. Maybe en route if Aston Villa’s team bus bypasses St Albans, where he lived in an apartment, a few miles up the road from Arsenal’s training base in Hertfordshire. On Saturday the forward, Villa’s new signing from Borussia Dortmund, could make his Premier League debut at the club where he spent two years as a youngster. He left Ajax for London at 16 but returned aged 18 to the Netherlands with their rivals PSV Eindhoven, and there Malen began to realise his potential.
He excelled during six months with Jong PSV, outscoring Cody Gakpo to finish the 2017-18 season as the under-23s’ top goalscorer and making his Eredivisie first-team debut in the February of a title-winning campaign. “He was at Arsenal doing his thing, a good player but not using all his skills,” says Twan Scheepers, now the Jong PSV manager, who worked closely with Malen as an individual attacking coach and the assistant manager.
