Arsenal Vs West Ham: Don’t kill Ainsley Maitland-Niles

Ainsley Maitland-Niles had an absolute stinker in Arsenal’s 1-0 loss to West Ham United on Saturday. But don’t kill the 21-year-old for one bad game. Young players are inconsistent. That does not mean they lack talent.

Very few players played well in Arsenal’s thoroughly depressing 1-0 loss to West Ham United on Saturday. As a result, it is a little harsh to single out individuals for criticism. When your whole team plays poorly, it is not easy to not follow in their suit given the lack of help and foundation that is provided.

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Nevertheless, there was no player during the defeat that suffered a more abject display than Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Playing at right wing-back with Hector Bellerin still on his way back from injury, the versatile midfielder had, in the nicest way possible, a stinker.

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One stat tells the whole story: a 63% pass completion rate. Especially in the first half, Maitland-Niles was horribly loose in possession — there was one particularly poor two-minute period where he had three touches, three passes, three giveaways, before dropping his arms to the floor in frustration at his inability to complete a pass. His passing was consistently inaccurate, slow and ponderous, taking far too many touches on the ball, and allowing his composure to slip into complacency.

And Maitland-Niles wasn’t much better without the ball either. His positioning was far too advanced early on, with West Ham utilising the space in behind his runs to break on the back three, and he was exploited by the nuanced creativity of Felipe Anderson and Samir Nasri time and time again. Marco Arnautovic also started to pull onto him on the counter-attack, a sign of his vulnerability.

There is no way of defending Maitland-Niles’ performance. Quite simply, it wasn’t very good. But that does not mean that the talent that he has displayed in other matches is no longer present. It just means that he had a bad game. Even Lionel Messi has bad games every now and then.

The worst thing that could happen is for Maitland-Niles to lose confidence, his performances to dip as a result, and for him to drop down the pecking order in the squad and miss out on greater playing time moving forward, something that is essential to his development. As Alex Iwobi has suffered in the past, the mental side of a player’s youth progression is exceptionally significant.

Criticism is the last thing that Maitland-Niles now needs. It is for Unai Emery to point out, to hone, to fine tune and improve. Maitland-Niles had a bad game. But that is the anomaly from his recent performances, not the norm. Until it becomes the norm, the conversation should still be a positive one.

Maitland-Niles had a bad game. That does not make him a bad player. Don’t kill him for this performance.