Ainsley Maitland-Niles has had a great couple of weeks. Arsenal may have been pumped 5-1 by Liverpool, but the young versatile midfielder put in a performance on the highest order, scoring the opening goal and coming off the pitch as the only Arsenal man capable of keeping his head held high.
Your Man of the Match today?
— AFTV (@AFTVMedia) 1 January 2019
Maitland-Niles is a massive fan favourite at The Emirates. The fact that the young versatile midfielder came through the club’s ranks as a youth player will only help his cause, however, he has struggled for game time this season after suffering a nasty injury on the opening day of the season in a 2-0 home loss against Manchester City.
The Gunners have been lucky enough to see the 21-year-old feature in five straight games, though, including three 90 minutes. Unai Emery is starting to rely upon the youngster, and with his ability to turn out as both a left-back and a right-back, his versatility is something that can be used to great effect in the absence of the majority of Arsenal’s defence.
You can read the Gunners’ calls for Maitland-Niles to be named MOTM here:
None of them! It was AMN
— PlatanoMaduro (@KingH3rc) January 1, 2019
https://twitter.com/ezzzamel/status/1080146597734899712
Replace Xhaka on this list with Maitland Niles!
— San Holo (@Ineedsomesleep) January 1, 2019
https://twitter.com/jennyAB31205/status/1080166936984674304
AMN MOTM for me, but out of the four I'd say Kolasinac
— Bibz (@Bibz_14) January 1, 2019
Sead Kolasinac for me. Iwobi was fantastic as well surprised to see xhaka as an option instead of AMN
— The Invincibles (@rapzep11) 1 January 2019
A lot of the Gunners were delighted with Maitland-Niles performance today and will hope the youngster can kick on from here and become one of the first names on Unai Emery’s teamsheet.
