Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were quick to praise their teammates as Arsenal enjoyed another visit to Wembley securing the Community Shield 5-4 on penalties following a 1-1 draw after 90 minutes.
Aubameyang opened the scoring in the first half with a fine strike and netted the winner in the shootout as Mikel Arteta’s players delivered a solid performance off the back of limited time on the training ground.
Here’s what Auba and Ainsley had to say after the game…
On lifting more silverware…
PEA: It feels very good. First of all, I have to say happy birthday, bro [to Maitland-Niles]. He was the man of the match, I’m really happy for him, he deserves it. Today, we deserved the win. We’re going to take this trophy and this time, hopefully, I don’t drop it.
On his man of the match performance…
AMN: It’s a special moment. It’s the first time I’ve played on my birthday, we’re at Wembley, fighting for another cup and title for the club…and we brought it home today. It’s a fantastic feeling. This group of boys proved something last season and we’re keeping it going into this season.
On the performance and his goal…
PEA: We played well. We did a fantastic action starting from the back. Bukayo gave me the ball and, yes, then I choose to go for it on my right foot and shoot and that’s it. I’m very happy.
On his contract…
PEA: We’re gonna see. Today, we take the trophy. [Laughter]
On Maitland-Niles future…
AMN: I’m an Arsenal player until I’m told otherwise. My heart is in the club and whilst I’m here, I’m going to give 100 per cent every time.
On the team developing…
PEA: For sure, for sure. We are improving and there’s still work to do. But I’m really happy and it’s a really exciting time to be an Arsenal player.
Lovely stuff from those two lads.
Sign! And keep scoring!
Keep AMN!
He’s right… so hurry up and sign the new contract.
I’ll be very sad to lose AMN
My bro……….Same here
Sign da ting
So, AMN doesn’t want to leave. Arteta doesn’t want him to go. It’s the board that’s trying to cash-in?!?
Unfortunately yes. We are dealing in loan deals and niles is the only priceable asset we have to fund partey|aouar unless our board gets the money from owner.
Torreira, Guendouzi, Ozil, Chambers, Holding – loan, Sokratis….
To be fair we have too many at the moment, somebody probably has to go.
But why sell your established players ahead of the dead wood?
It’s about time that Arsenal fans took another stand with this fucking board and Kroenke in particular.
If AMN is sold now, I think there’s going to be a lot of bad vibes.
If we’re talking full backs I cant see a lot of dead wood. Kola is most likely going. I guess Arteta must rate Cedric cos he just signed him.
Not looking a great idea to sell AMN, but its it’s similar to the GK situation.
Some Arsenal fans are the caused of this nonsense,didn’t you them saying AMN,LACA,ETC be sold just to bring in other players?
I think, my friend, you will find that the cause of this nonsense is a rich old man from America, who has busily been trying to brainwash us all that Arsenal Football Club are strapped for money – whilst he himself has enough money to run a small country, never mind a football club.
Qwaliteee what is the dead wood you are referring to? Xhaka, Mustafi or maybe Elneny? There are three players that were mentioned regularly last season, but haven’t the first two come on leaps and bounds under Arteta? Elneny the forgotten man was outstanding yesterday. I don’t want to lose any of our young talent. Especially when they can give that extra 10% through that natural love for the club and love to get money in from other avenues, but sometimes that is not the case. If you mean our two outcasts, getting rid of them will be very hard, one… Read more »
Cedric isn’t a bad player. Someone should be willing to offer 5 million or so for him, which would be great business for us: add needed depth for the end of last season, then sell him on now for a profit.
We literally just signed him tho
We couldn’t sell him if we didn’t sign him.
Be a bit strange to sign and sell him in the same window
A bit like Clive Allen all those years ago. He didn’t even last the summer
As I have been trying to tell you all….yes.
It’s the fucking board.
The owners could certainly do things differently but unfortunately they won’t …
But, as fans, we have mouths, we have tongues – and we have a media all too ready for a good story to sell newspapers and gain hits and clicks by the millions. We have already had ‘We Care – Do You?’, which, backed by the media, led to Josh Kroenke being forced to make a statement. Now is the time for Arsenal fans to remind the board of that statement. This board need reminding, publicly, that with a multi billionaire majority shareholder, they have the means to implement all that Mikel Arteta (and us) could wish for and more.… Read more »
We may have mouths and tongues, but Kroenke’s don’t have ears.
We have a Shylock board then.
Yep. I liken them more to the senate of Ancient Rome, with Emperor Kroenke fiddling, whilst this club’s chances of reaching top four and competing for the Premiership and the ECL continue to go up in smoke.
I really hope nobody tells AMN otherwise. It’s something that ties us to the club in the upheaval Arsenal is going through, these players who have been at the club since Wenger. I really hope we see him, Bukayo Saka (I know we aren’t selling him), and Hector Bellerin still at the club come 6th October.
“My heart is in the club”..Sell others(Kola, Torreira, Guendouzi, Sokratis, Mustafi) but not AMN and Emi, they’ll bleed to the the jersey.
Top post. Well said.
Although I personally would be inclined to keep Lucas Torreira – he has the quality to still make a massive contribution to our aspirations.
If arsenal were linked with a young English utility player who puts in performances like these we would be looking at 35m quid easy.
Don’t sell him.
The offer from Wolves was less than 20 million. It wouldn’t be enough to fund anything much more than an older lesser replacement.
And if we sell him to Wolves, that helps them, and then they go on and sell Doherty to Spurs, which helps Tottenham. We should be helping ourselves instead and keeping AMN.
Wolves were being cheeky and taking the piss – and they knew it. They put in a stupid offer because – as the rest of the football world knows – this Arsenal board are more than capable of shooting the club in both foot. In fact, make that both feet. Repeatedly.
Yup. Agreed. Pay £50m to get AMN, keep him if no one gonna pay that amount. Does my intention to keep him sound too obvious
My heart is in the club”..Sell others(Kola, Torreira, Guendouzi, Sokratis, Mustafi) but not AMN and Emi, they’ll bleed for the jersey.
sounds promising!
Cannot for the life of me understand why the club would let AMN go, he is only going to get better. From way back in the early Wenger days an ideal Arsenal player was described as coming through the Arsenal ranks and being steeped in Arsenal DNA, Ainsley is exactly that.
…and he’s better than Soares who we signed…why exactly?
I’m good with the Soares signing because it’s cheap LB+RB backup.
I also want AMN to stay, he’s exactly the sort of Swiss Army Knife player who could keep the manager’s tactics fresh in big knockout games. Plus it’s a 60 game season nowadays, plenty of games to go round especially for versatile players.
Board’s trying to cash in because all the king’s men can’t move players who need to be moved like Kolasinac. But that can’t justify some BS book balancing exercise.
It’s an existing time to be an Arsenal fan
Auba pls sign. I Don’t know why but I feel he will sign and be an legend
Get cebellos/Partey and aouer and we are ready to go.
Its an exciting time to be existing as an Arsenal supporter!
World is still a better place when Arsenal win
AMN is a quality player, he’s still young and learning his trade at one of the best clubs in the world, let’s not make the same mistake with him as we did with Serge Gnabry!!
We should not sell AMN. There are others who should be out the door before him that’s for sure.
Sign Auba, keep AMN and crack on. It really should be that simple!
“I’m an Arsenal player until I’m told otherwise” Cause that’s how it works.
Good to know Ainsley is up to date on arseblog stuff.
Love this!!
I feel for PEA the delay relates to the Messi situation. He’d probably stay at Arsenal for anything other then Barca. Probably the club see the potential to cash in big with the Catalans in a desperate situation
Must admit I could live with it so long as a decent enough replacement was secured.
I think he could be subject to another triangle deal with Gabrial Jesus coming to
us.
Ainsley reminds me so much of my old mate George who I worked together with in 1970- a heart of gold- didn’t smile a lot, but when he did- it over shone the sun. My man always- stay with us..
I love those two lads. Arteta looks to be doing all he can to keep them.
Somebody should tell Kroenke that both of these guys need to stay.
Exactly. It’s time for Arsenal fans to get vocal again and remind this board of their shallow promises.
Nice one boys! A great day to be an arsenal fan too COYG ???
England call up needs to be the end of any discussion of AMN leaving the club. Been WAY too long since we had an England international in the squad, pains me every time Southgate announces nothing but Spurs cheats like Kane, Alli and Dier
Love this comment!
I really hope the keep AMN.
Really don’t know why you guys take too much to what you hear on the media, Arteta has said he likes the player and wants to keep him, the player has said he loves the club, now we ve moved on to ‘the board wants to sell him to raise funds’ can we just wait to see these things materialize before running overdrive on speculation!
Your one of the very few arsenal fans with sense.
I love Ainsley. I don’t want him to leave.
But, I’m genuinely interested in how my fellow gooners would feel with him playing cm or on the wing as a starting xi player.
I’m playing devils advocate but if Gabriel signs he’s our left cb in a three and Tierney goes lwb.
For me AMN goes RB or 1 of a midfield 3 but both are not guaranteed….
Very hard to know. He’s great and versatile but is he starting….. view’s appreciated
Guendouzi is done at Arsenal, so after Xhaka and Elneny there is really only AMN and Torreira. And Torreira could be off too, didn’t make the squad today. If we can get rid of Kola there will be plenty of games for Ainsley and we can use this season to really assess what his future holds.
An exciting time to be an arsenal fan
Arsenal 4 ever
Ainsley’s just been called up to the England squad. Well done, lad! And happy birthday!
Well done but there is still a lot of work needed for us to get to where Arsenal football club should be .
I am proud to be a gunner, we must not lose our captain
Great birthday cake from our captain
So happy for AMN. What a positive development his career has had the last 4-5 months. Hope he stays!
Martinez got the no1 shirt prove me wrong
Definitely wears no.26 Leno is no.1,lol
Seriously though such a tough call, hope arteta can manage both their expectations and give them an equal amount of matches across 4 competitions
They still have that “ten appearances in the league and you get a medal if the team wins” thing, don’t they? If so I would hope to see Martinez get his ten appearances (at least, plus a decent share of the FA Cup and Euro games), just in case 🙂
Well lets see if he backs it up with his signature.
I’m not sure a Willian signing convinces anything, Manghales maybe will build something but one wonder signing…