Arsenal's Yaya Sanogo has endured an extremely rough start to his loan spell with Dutch giants Ajax, but looks to have turned a corner after an impressive cameo at the weekend.

Everything looked to be rosy for the Frenchman when he scored a first half hat-trick in a pre-season friendly, but things turned somewhat sour for the 22-year-old a short time later.

First, club coach Ronald De Boer told Dutch Media he saw “no qualities to work with" in the lanky striker, with Sanogo dropped to the reserves side a short time later.

Ajax then crashed out of the Champions League after surprisingly going down in qualifying to Austrian side Rapid Wien.

Champions League football had been a big part of the reason Arsene Wenger sent the former Auxerre youth product to Amsterdam.

With Ajax trailing 2-1 against FC Twente on the weekend, manager Frank De Boer took a gamble in sending Sanogo onto the field with 12 minutes remaining.

Sanogo repaid his managers faith by drawing a penalty four minutes after coming on. Nemanja Gudelj made no mistake from the spot as last season's runners-up salvaged a point.

Sanogo is yet to really make his mark in professional football, having failed to convince the sceptics in his short time at Arsenal, despite some promising performances.

The weekend's cameo is an encouraging sign that the youngster may be able to make the grade after all at a European giant like Ajax, despite a rocky start.