After finding himself in the first-team wilderness in recent weeks, Ainsley Maitland-Niles made his return to competitive action against West Ham on Monday night and produced a typically assured performance.

The 22-year-old found himself on the bench against at the Hammers at the beginning of the evening, but starting right-back Hector Bellerin pulled out of the game during the warm-up with a suspected injury. In came Maitland-Niles, and the academy product showed he can be a more than capable deputy for the Spaniard.

As per Sofascore, he made a joint team-high three tackles, made three clearances, won eight ground duels and had an impressive 100 touches of the ball. It was a display oozing in poise and calmness, and one that saw Arsenal fans flood to Twitter to voice their thoughts on the ace.

Some Gunners fans were quick to praise his use of the ball, and insisted that his calmness under pressure meant the north London side could play out from the back better and thus open the game up.

With Bellerin still trying to fully recover from his knee injury that ruled him out for an extended period of time, Maitland-Niles' performance against West Ham showed Freddie Ljungberg that he can be trusted with the right-back berth. He gave the Gunners a good sense of balance between going forward and tracking back, and the Arsenal boss will surely feel tempted to keep the same starting line-up that finally gave the club a win.

Meanwhile, Arsenal fans have been left raving about this star after his virtuoso performance against West Ham.