Arsenal: Ainsley Maitland-Niles can be counted on as a solution

Arsenal made some moves against West Ham, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles notching his first ever Premier League start and, safe to say, he made a statement.

It was all rather disheartening, watching Arsenal labor to that 0-0 draw against West Ham. So many things came so close to going right but inevitably went wrong. Tactically, the club was in jumbles, but there were certain individual performances that stood up against the tidal wave of disappointment.

One such performance was Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Anyone who expected the world out of him likely needs their expectations readjusted. Likewise, anyone that even had a bit bad to say about the young man should do likewise.

Because when you get down to it, when you think about what you’d want to see from a 20 year old making his debut away from home at a club that just beat the reigning champions while he plays out of position, the number one thing on your mind should be “no mistakes.”

If you care to move on to a second desire, I am speaking for the masses when I say that not getting caught up in the excitement is a key need. Not trying to do too much, but more so just not letting emotions overwhelm.

Moving onto a potential third, I say we get audacious and ask that some sort of positive impact be made.

Well then, Maitland-Niles did all those things. And he did them all while playing out of position, if it needed to be said again.

The young man did not make any glaring mistakes. He didn’t have any mental farts. There were a few times when his defense could have been tightened up a bit, but he’s not the only one with that improvement to be made.

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In terms of staying calm, he has been the embodiment of calmness throughout the midweek fixtures and he continued that against West Ham. He was unflappable on and off the ball and never came near losing composure.

And he did make a positive impact. He sent in the most crosses (9) and unsurprisingly therefore completed the most (4). Clearly he understood that, with the big man in the box, each and every cross was a threat, and as that 44% completion can attest to, he did threaten with those wide balls.

How does this apply long term? Well, I think it’d be foolish not to call him a solution to a potential problem. That problem being a lack of depth at fullback and a lack of dynamic depth at midfield. He has the potential for dynamism and he certainly has shown us that, at fullback, he is far from terrible.

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There is a lot of work to do, but his upside alone should be enough to count him as a solution, just as much as Alex Iwobi was in the Spring of 2016.

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