Ipswich loan turned me into a man but I still couldn’t cut it at Arsenal
Ainsley Maitland-Niles is one of few names to have played for both Ipswich Town and Arsenal with the two teams set to face off in Premier League action this evening. The Gunners will be hoping to take advantage of Chelsea's defeat to Fulham while also remaining six points behind Liverpool.
Mikel Arteta's side will be heavy favourites to beat the Tractor Boys as they have just one victory from their last six. The return of Liam Delap will come as a big boost for Kieran McKenna but their defensive woes are clear and Arsenal will be aiming for another five-goal haul.
In recent weeks, Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith Rowe have come up against their former club with Crystal Palace and Fulham, respectively, and now Omari Hutchinson will be the man to face his old side. Upon leaving the Gunners in 2022, he joined Chelsea but has since completed a permanent transfer to Ipswich.
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Maitland-Niles is another to have played for both in recent years with the now 27-year-old spending some time on loan at Portman Road in 2015. On that spell, he admitted soon after that it resulted in a big change in his character.
“I think me going on loan, it turned me in to a man pretty quickly that year being by myself and being away from home,” he told Arsenal Player. “It just made me grow up more and mature my game.” Maitland-Niles departed his boyhood club in the summer of 2023 at the end of his contract.
12 months later he returned to Emirates Stadium with new club Lyon and commented on his departure from the Gunners. "I’m very mature in my mind and I understand how football works," he admitted as quoted by the club's website. "Sometimes it’s time to let go of a club that has been so dear to you and you had so many years with.
"So it was more of a process of trying to move on, both for my family and myself. Obviously my contract expired anyway, so I had to find something that was concrete and solid and I felt like Lyon was the best fit."
