Arsenal: Ainsley Maitland-Niles has several parallels to avoid

Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Newcastle was a bit feeble, but Ainsley Maitland-Niles came to play. However, there are several parallels that he desperately needs to avoid going forward.

Arsenal returned home after three straight winless matches to face the team in the worst form of the table, Newcastle. It was supposed to be ugly. A rebounding Gunners side facing a crippled Newcastle. No need to stress, right?

Well, wrong. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is we got the three points and, in the process, Ainsley Maitland-Niles stepped up massively. In his debut against West Ham, he was solid. Adequate, we will say. Successful enough not to be a burden.

The young Englishman started over Sead Kolasinac again. Which is certainly bizarre, no doubt. But more on that later.

On the part of Maitland-Niles, he was huge. He made some blazing runs, one of which led him all the way into the Newcastle defense where he sent a ball fizzling past the outside of the post. It wasn’t the work of a prospect, but of a hungry first-teamer eager to prove that he was ready for the big time.

The composure of this 20-year-old is remarkable, especially seeing as how this isn’t his natural position, but that is where the first avoidable parallel needs to be brought into the picture. An obvious one – Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Maitland-Niles hasn’t spoken about his positioning all that often, but we know he, like the Ox, wants to be a central midfielder. His success at fullback, therefore (like the Ox) has its drawbacks if Arsene Wenger starts to see him as a fullback and nothing more.

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You’d think Wenger would have learned by now and is reading the situation, but one can never tell with him.

The other parallel is that of Alex Iwobi. Young Iwobi broke into the first team and made a massive impact for about half a season before he gradually faded and disappeared into a prospect all over again. It felt like a flash in the pan and something that is now two-years in the making to fix.

Iwobi has been re-tooled himself into more of a central midfielder, so perhaps the solution can be found there.

Maitland-Niles is going great, and that should be rejoiced, but the parallels start now. Whatever mistakes were made in the cases of the other two can’t be repeated here.

Next: Arsenal vs Newcastle Player Ratingsg

In the mean time, let’s be happy that we have some actual coverage at fullback/wingback after all.

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