Arsenal: Ainsley Maitland-Niles ages ahead of the club

Arsenal are a club in relative chaos, which puts Ainsley Maitland-Niles in a unique place, because he is never in chaos. This could bode well in the future.

Arsenal’s win over Watford is being tossed about as ‘meaningless’ and that is pretty applicable, but it did provide a lot of building blocks. Granit Xhaka was yet again at the top of his game, improving more and more with each successive match.

The attack was convincing, as was the defense, particularly the makeshift centerback pairing.

And, of course, there was Ainsley Maitland-Niles, playing well out of position as usual at right back. Although, at least at this point, he was on his dominant side, rather than having to play on the left side.

Of course, Maitland-Niles played with that steely, cool confidence that we have come to expect out of him. The discussion around him is if maybe he is too cool for this club. When the Gunners are in charge, it’s great to see him calm under pressure. He’s rarely flustered into giving away possession and can serve as a fantastic outlet because he’s not prone to many mistakes.

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On the contrary, he shows that same demeanor when urgency is required and it comes off looking a tad lackadaisical.

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This, in turn, made me realize that should Arsenal ever reach the level of dominance that they are striving to achieve, that Manchester City level, for lack of a better term, then they will have a superb weapon in Maitland-Niles, as he is already imperturbable enough to handle it.

The problem is, the Gunners aren’t there yet. Ideally they will be soon, but they’ve been trying to get there for awhile and needless to say, it feels like they’re going in circles at times. Meanwhile, Maitland-Niles is going in a straight line.

In a perfect world, peak Maitland-Niles, where his calmness converges with his prime, Arsenal will be in a position to capitalize on his superior mental prowess and his ability to play like a seasoned veteran.

However, until that time, we get to enjoy the fact that we have a young up-and-comer that is just ages ahead of the club in terms of composure and consistency. He still has growing to do, that’s obvious, but he has some fantastic building blocks in place to be a major player on a top-tier contender when he irons out the few kinks that he has.

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Hopefully that will be with the Gunners.