Arsenal vs Standard Liege: Where, oh where, is Ainsley Maitland-Niles?

Arsenal will pull out the rotation against Standard Liege, but Ainsley Maitland-Niles is caught in the middle. So where can we expect to see him?

Ainsley Maitland-Niles stamped himself on the rightback role last season with Arsenal and issued a challenge to Hector Bellerin to come and take the role back, if he so dared. With the Spaniard back in action and Maitland-Niles in a rut, it remains to be seen what will happen, but the upcoming match against Standard Liege will give us a good indication.

Arsenal’s rotational squad is just as exciting as their first choice Premier League squad. Arguably more so. We have a better defense, a more energetic midfield, and an attack that has all the potential in the world. We saw it against Nottingham Forest, with Calum Chambers and HEctor Bellerin accounting for four assists across the five goals scored.

You may notice that Ainsley Maitland-Niles was not included in that list.

Bellerin is being tipped to start against Standard Liege as his health continues to improve, but Chambers has made himself known in the role too, though he has a bit of a niggling injury himself now.

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So where does that leave Maitland-Niles? In the span of two weeks, after a grossly irresponsible double yellow compiled on with an injury, he has fallen from first-choice right back to third-choice. But with a rotation coming, Maitland-Niles kind of has to start. Especially seeing as how he didn’t feature against Manchester United at all.

That start is unlikely to be at rightback. That’s Bellerin’s only position and we all really want to see him back in action.

Which leaves two options—as a right winger, or *drum roll please* in central midfield, his preferred position.

You could make the case for starting him on the wings. But I’ll say that I’d rather leave that to Reiss Nelson and Bukayo Saka (and Emile Smith Rowe, whenever he’s back). Besides, that is still technically out of position for Maitland-Niles.

Rather, if you want my overly optimistic take, I would love to see Maitland-Niles getting himself into the base of the midfield alongside Joe Willock. He’s played out of position long enough, the least Unai Emery can do is give him a chance.

Otherwise, we risk Maitland-Niles becoming a floater again, and floaters generally don’t stay at a club long. They go somewhere that won’t play them out of position.