Arsenal lost 3-0 to Chelsea in their latest pre-season clash.
Arsenal came unstuck in their latest pre-season friendly, as Premier League rivals Chelsea defeated them 3-0 on Saturday courtesy of two goals from Michy Batshuayi and one from Willian.
It was a comfortable victory for the Blues, but the Gunners used the opportunity to give some of their youngsters a run-out and experiment with some players in different positions.
In a defensive setup most Arsenal fans will be hoping they have seen the first and the last of, Ainsley Maitland-Niles lined up alongside Mohamed Elneny and the much maligned Per Mertesacker, and Chelsea duly ran riot.
Maitland-Niles has been promoted to the Arsenal first-team this season but he will have to do a lot better than this to get any more than a few minutes in the cup competitions.
While some Arsenal fans were bemoaning manager Arsene Wenger’s decision to play a midfielder at the back, the 19-year-old has history playing as a right-back and as a result it was not a move completely out of left field.
That said, it may be some time before he is playing there again, at least against one of England’s other top sides.
After the match we took to Twitter to see what Arsenal fans thought of Maitland-Niles’ latest performance and you can read a selection of what we found below:
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