As Mikel Arteta racked up his 100th in shape as Arsenal supervisor, the first crew sheet he ever introduced as head coach obviously resurfaced.
Bukayo Saka, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette were three acquainted names from the four gamers that had the difference of bookending Arteta's century, but Ainsley Maitland-Niles also cropped up as the sudden member of that quartet too.
Starting in location of the injured Thomas Partey in Arsenal's gritty 1-0 win over Watford on Sunday, Maitland-Niles coated up alongside Albert Sambi Lokonga - stepping in even as Granit Xhaka maintains his restoration - to form Arteta's decidedly 2nd-choice midfield double-pivot.
Barely months previous, Maitland-Niles' status as an Arsenal player, let alone a starter, seemed deeply doubtful. As the switch window ended, the membership's academy product took the current technique of venting his frustrations digitally (and very publicly) by using posting: "All I wanna do is pass wherein I'm wanted and in which I'm gonna play."
Alongside no fewer than 3 crying face emojis, Maitland-Niles pointedly tagged the reputable Arsenal account. However, no circulate materialised and, going into Sunday's match, the 24-yr-vintage had made as many Premier League starts as the long-forgotten Sead Kolasinac.
At the start of Arteta's reign, Maitland-Niles emerged as one of the crew's key performers through carving out a niche role as a rampaging left wing-lower back. Completing the full ninety mins within the final 3 rounds of that season's FA Cup, his thrust and disarming speed stretched the backlines of Manchester City and Chelsea en route to the trophy, creating area for Aubameyang to attain a brace in every fixture.
Maitland-Niles almost conspired to create a gap for his Gabon goalscorer inside the commencing ten minutes of the weekend's Watford win. Snapping into a address on the brink of the Hornets' box, Partey's alternative stabbed Lacazette into the region. The Frenchman's scooped attempt changed into pawed to the feet of Aubameyang but he took a heavy contact into the path of an offside Saka - who finished crisply however.
In the absence of Arsenal's first-choice pairing, Maitland-Niles changed into granted the danger to fulfil his favoured role. “I need to play inside the centre of the pitch because I sense cushty there and there’s lots of things I can deliver by way of playing inside the middle," he defined to the Express and Star while gambling in that position on mortgage with West Bromwich Albion closing season. "You can manipulate the game from there and I assume my attributes help me try this.”
From that principal position Maitland-Nile simply inspired proceedings in a niggling, foul-ridden scrimmage at the Emirates. No player at the pitch made greater tackles (five) or interceptions () than Arsenal's wide variety 15 against Watford.
Aside from defensive metal, Partey and Xhaka additionally serve as the leader exponents of progression up the pitch for Arsenal, averaging the most passes into the very last 0.33 of any Gunner this season. While Maitland-Niles scurried round, it often fell to Sambi - the extra frequently used player thus far - to acquire the ball from his defence and release Arsenal's assaults.
