This is what Arteta just said in a press conference:
on whether Mikel was involved in changing Myles Lewis-Skelly to a left-back:
When I saw him, to give him a chance and with the project that we had in the academy the moment that I saw him, the only way I could think was to change his position. I spoke to him and said I think this is where you’re going to have it, because I think it fits a lot of his qualities, the way that we play and it fits because we had necessities in the position, so we started to work on that. He got into it straight away with the personality that he has. I think it’s very obvious and now he’s doing it.
That reads to me like Arteta sees inverted fullback as MLS's best position, and the position where he can find a role at Arsenal.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/every-word-artetas-pre-aston-villa-presser-0
