Arteta’s Arsenal rulings see another man miss out

Not one afraid to make the big calls, Mikel Arteta has chopped and changed his Arsenal team across his tenure to the point where it is unrecognisable from the one he inherited two years ago.

Most of the squad has been moved on and/or replaced by new arrivals, with six coming in the recent summer window who are now all regular features in the starting lineup.

A host of signings inevitably meant some would miss out or move further down the pecking order, one of whom was Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Making a public plea to the club to get a move elsewhere, discussions on the eve of deadline day between the manager and the midfielder convinced the Hale Ender to stay.

He wanted to move to Everton, but the terms of the deal were ludicrous and Arsenal would never accept. Besides, Arteta informed the 24-year-old he was still part of his plans and that minutes would come.

Arteta’s Arsenal rulings see Ainsley Maitland-Niles miss out on the matchday squad against Everton despite midfield struggles

Those weren’t readily available in the form of starts, but every time Maitland-Niles did take the pitch, whether as a substitute or not, it would be in his favoured central midfield where is performances were a pleasant surprise.

A more focussed and defensively switched on version of Maitland-Niles was visible, even earning the man of the match gong for his display in his most recent start, the 1-0 home win over Watford.

Against Everton, he was nowhere to be seen.

Left out of the squad entirely, the return of Granit Xhaka resulted in an immediate demotion for him. It doesn’t feel especially meritocratic.

It isn’t to say that Maitland-Niles deserves to be starting every week, and one omission from a squad doesn’t spell the end, but the question remains what is the point of having Mohamed Elneny or Nicolas Pepe on the bench when it was clear that Xhaka was always going to play the full game and that Pepe’s best chance earning minutes is by being a pitch invader.

Doing everything that would have been asked of him, it can’t be especially encouraging for Maitland-Niles to be seeing Thomas Partey put in his worst displays in an Arsenal shirt while he can’t even make the bench despite a man of the match outing the last time he started.

One thing is for certain, and that is that Maitland-Niles is not the saviour here. He shouldn’t be starting ahead of Partey. That job should fall to Sambi Lokonga, who it seems is being protected by the manager in some way having not played in the last two.

In defeat and times of hardship it’s easy to pick on every aspect of the performance or manager and find fault. Maitland-Niles’ situation is a peculiar one that he will feel unjustly treated in, especially if he’s fallen behind a 29-year-old Elneny on his way out of the club, a crestfallen Partey and a 60% fit Xhaka, but he isn’t a world-beater set to win Arsenal Premier League matches.

It does come across as unwarranted though, even if we’re not privy to training sessions, and if it persists it will open a wider debate.