Football
James McNicholas, Arsenal blogger 6y

Arsenal's Ainsley Maitland-Niles takes his opportunity to shine on centre-stage

Ainsley Maitland-Niles must have wondered if he'd ever get an opportunity to start another Arsenal match in his preferred position of central midfield.

The versatile youngster has been used as both a full-back and wing-back this season, but during Thursday night's 3-0 win over F. K. Ostersunds, he was finally granted a chance in the middle of the park. It wasn't a perfect display, but Maitland-Niles did enough to show why Arsenal have such high hopes for him.

This was the first time the 20-year-old had been picked in that position for more than a year, when he played in a midfield three with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jeff Reine-Adelaide during an FA Cup tie against Southampton in January 2017. It was a successful audition, with a heavily rotated Arsenal side running out 5-0 winners in a dominant display.

However, this season he has effectively been used as a utility player. When Oxlade-Chamberlain was sold to Liverpool shortly before the summer transfer deadline, Maitland-Niles stepped up to cover as a wing-back option on both flanks. When Sead Kolasinac's form suffered a mid-season dip, Maitland-Niles jumped ahead of the Bosnian in the queue for a spot in the first-team, even holding down his place on the left-hand side of a back four.

Maitland-Niles has coped admirably in a series of unfamiliar roles. He has two outstanding attributes that enable him to cope with a variety of situations: preternatural composure, and excellent recovery pace. He never looks phased, and when he does make a mistake he has the presence of mind and the blistering speed to make up for it.

Those assets are also useful for any aspiring midfielder -- and frustratingly absent in the Arsenal first-team. All too often, Arsene Wenger's team are prone to panic. What's more, their midfield are generally preoccupied with possession rather than recovery.

Any Arsenal fan who's been forced to endure the sight of the leaden-footed Granit Xhaka "tracking back" will have been desperate for the speedy Maitland-Niles to get his chance in the senior side.

The technical side of his game could still use some work. Time spent on the wing has improved his close control, but his lack of experience is occasionally visible in his pass selection.

That much was evident in Sweden, where Maitland-Niles was generally better without the ball than with it. Wenger couched his praised with the inference that there was still room for improvement when he said: "I think 80 percent of his game was good. Overall, I feel he can win the ball back well... It's a positive game for a first run."

It's that ability to win the ball back that makes him such an intriguing prospect for Arsenal. It's what they do worst, and fans would love to see the problems of their dysfunctional midfield solved by an academy graduate over spending £50 million on a player who may not settle at the club.

Maitland-Niles should get another chance to impress in the return leg, and he's unlikely to be the only youngster afforded a chance to shine. Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson both came off the bench at the Jamkraft Arena, but with Arsenal likely to have one eye on the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City on Feb. 25 they could be in line for a start next Thursday.

Nelson and Nketiah are good prospects, but neither has such a clear path to the first-team as Maitland-Niles. When he plays at wing-back, he looks like he could be an effective squad player. When he's deployed in the middle, he looks like he has the potential to act as the antidote to Arsenal's midfield woes.

There's a way to go yet, but Maitland-Niles looks like a player with a very bright future.

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