Arsenal: 4 reasons Sambi keeps his place over Maitland-Niles

3. Ainsley Maitland-Niles Might be Sold in the Summer

Arteta has made a conscious decision this season in comparison to last term that acts as a fine example of how he’s learning as a coach: Pablo Mari would start over Gabriel, Mohamed Elneny would start over Joe Willock, Willian would start over Nicolas Pepe, etc.

Now, he’s abandoned that. Those who will not be contributing to the long-term future of this will not play: Maitland-Niles over Elneny, Gabriel over Mari, and so on.

The case with Sambi and Maitland-Niles is slightly similar. While the latter is now two years his senior, who is the more likely to be contributing in Arsenal teams two years from now? With only a year left on his deal come the end of the season, while it isn’t out of the realms of possibility that Maitland-Niles could sign a new deal, he will want assurances of regular first team football.

He won’t get that at Arsenal. Sambi might, though.

What happens now with the developing players like Sambi will impact the long-term. It may be that he isn’t what Arsenal need at this stage of the journey and another midfielder comes in or Xhaka is reinstated, but in order to find that out he needs to continue playing. For better or for worse.

It’s no slight on Maitland-Niles either, it’s just that in building for the future the most beneficial course of action is to select those who are more likely to be part of it.

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