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Bristol City head a queue of Championship clubs wanting to sign Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah with Arsenal to recall the 20-year-old from Leeds United within the next 48 hours, Bristol Live understands.

City lost out to Leeds in August for the chance to have Nketiah for the 2019/20 campaign but since moving to Elland Road, 15 of his 16 Championship appearances have been off the bench and his only start was made on December 29 against Birmingham.

Arsenal have grown increasingly dissatisfied with developments and will bring him back to Emirates Stadium with a desire to loan him out to another club, likely to be in England's second tier, who can guarantee him sufficient minutes and starts.

City are confident their pitch made in the summer, which emphasised the volume of young players - including Chelsea's Tammy Abraham - who have improved under Lee Johnson's coaching, coupled with the opportunities he'll get at Ashton Gate, stands them in good stead for January.

They do, however, face competition from across the division with Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday also interested in signing the striker until the end of the season to aid their promotion push.

It is thought Brentford are City's main rival, given they would suit Arsenal geographically and head coach Thomas Frank encourages a brand of football appealing to loan manager Ben Knapper and academy chief Per Mertesacker.

But the Robins remain in the box-seat given the groundwork they put in last summer and that the situation at Ashton Gate hasn't changed in terms of their need for a striker following Benik Afobe's ACL injury in September.

The plan remains to sign two new strikers in the January transfer window to support top scorer Andi Weimann and Famara Diedhiou with fringe forwards Antoine Semenyo and Sammie Szmodics set to leave on loan in the coming days.

Once Arsenal have recalled Nketiah the expectation is that the identity of the new loan destination should be concluded fairly swiftly meaning, if City are successful, they can then focus on securing a second attacking target.

Nketiah would provide City with additional penalty box prowess and his lack of starts at Leeds can be attributed to Marcelo Bielsa's desire to only field one central striker in Patrick Bamford, and the head coach's opinion that the loanee didn't provide enough of an impact off the ball.

Nketiah, who was sidelined with a stomach injury in November, scored five goals over his 18 appearances in league and cup, with his last coming in the 1-1 draw with Preston on October 22.

At the final whistle against Birmingham City in what appears to be his final game for the Whites, Nketiah made a point of waving to the travelling support.

When asked about the striker after the 5-4 win over Birmingham, Bielsa said: "I don’t know when Arsenal will make a decision like that.

"He came to Leeds with the goal to play but he had one more difficultly that he deserved to play.

"I think the dynamic of the team forces him to make a lot of effort and he has adapted well to this and we have to say that he’s a player prepared to put all his energy in the offensive play, not the defensive play.

"We attack with all of us and defend with all of us. He’s a specialist and he made a big effort to meet with the team and add to the play."

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