Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta says he was impressed by the contribution of Ainsley Maitland-Niles as Arsenal eased past Rapid Vienna 4-1 at the Emirates in the Europa League on Thursday, December 4 2020.
In a heavily rotated team, the England international was given a role similar to that which Joe Willock has occupied recently.
With 8 final third entries, 5 progressive passes, 2 key passes, 1 assist and a couple of shots, he seemed to enjoy himself and was a central part of our most progressive attacking performance in quite some time.
In his post-game press conference, Arteta reflected: “What he’s done today the great thing with Ainsley is that he can fill various positions and that’s a great thing to have in a squad.
“He has played on the left as a wing-back, on the right, he can play as a holding midfield, as an attacking midfielder and again the performances like tonight helps, and he has a chance to play like anyone else.”
On Ainsley’s energy adding something to the midfield, he added: “Yes, the same with Emile and the same that Joe Willock gives in those positions because they are attacking midfielder, they are not holding midfielders.
“They have it in their minds that they want to make those runs, make that final pass, they want to shoot and at the moment we need that: we need people with the mindset to score goals.
“They want to go there, they want to take their chances, they want to be aggressive when they have the ball and when the ball is far from them, they have to make it to the box because the middle of the goal is when goals are scored. When you get in those positions constantly, the chances of scoring goals increases so it is good to see that.”
