Ainsley Maitland-Niles already has plenty of personal motivation to perform well in Tuesday's Carabao Cup fourth-round tie before taking into account Arsenal’s opposition.
There may not be any great rivalry between the Gunners and Norwich City but in 2015-16, the 20-year-old spent a season on loan at Ipswich Town, who remain firmly in the shadow of their local adversaries following a 1-0 defeat at Portman Road last weekend in the East Anglian derby.
Maitland-Niles can help to gain a small degree of revenge for his former club while taking another step towards integrating into first-team life at Emirates Stadium.
This season has already represented a significant step forward for Maitland-Niles given he was selected to travel with the senior squad for the club’s pre-season tour less than a month after being part of the England side which won the Under-20 World Cup.
“It helped me a lot because I got to know the players a lot more when we went out on tour,” he said.
“You see different sides of their characters and the manager’s as well. People are more laid back with you and when you are on tour, you can always find a group of friends you can connect with. Being away from home before the season you can open up to them and show them the real you.”
Manager Arsene Wenger promotes versatility in his young players and Maitland-Niles was trialled as a centre-back against Chelsea in Beijing but has primarily played in a wing-back role during Arsenal’s Europa League campaign this term.
As seems to be the case with so many players at the club, Maitland-Niles is eyeing a central midfield berth in the long term.
“It is the manager’s decision but I think he’ll see me as either a wing-back or a central midfielder this season,” he said.
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“I wouldn’t want to play centre-back again but it did open my eyes and show me different areas of the pitch when I was looking forward and seeing people’s movement. What position would I like to play in? Central midfield. I’m a central midfielder so of course I’d want to play in my own position but of course I’m happy playing wing-back as well.”
Maitland-Niles made 32 appearances for Ipswich during his temporary switch before returning to feature in three League Cup, three FA Cup matches and one Premier League game in the following season with Arsenal.
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Tonight should mark his sixth appearance of the campaign already, underlining his progression, and Maitland-Niles admits he is having to adapt to a different environment in the senior setup as he bids to follow close friend Alex Iwobi by establishing himself as a more permanent fixture.
“Life changes quite a lot,” he said. “A lot of things that you had to do when you were a youth player get done for you. Cleaning boots and things like that. You just feel privileged really. And I guess if you are in the first-team dressing room, they think you deserve it.
“Just to get a few starts in the Premier League would be nice. That’s my main goal for the season.
“If I could, I’d like to play for the rest of the season but that might not happen so just as many times as I can play, I’ll be happy to.”
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