Arsene Wenger gave a positive and encouraging update on the injury situation at Arsenal yesterday, reported by Arsenal.com, and as well as the very good news on the fitness of our centre backs Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel after both picked up knocks last week, the manage spoke about his only signing of the January transfer window Mohamed Elneny.
The Frenchman said, “Elneny is fit. He is one of the players who could get a run [out] there. He’s mobile, he’s a very good player. He’s adapting at the moment and I think he’s there now. We’ll certainly see him against Hull. He has a chance to start.”
So Elneny does have a chance but I do not think he will. The Egypt international does need as much time on the pitch with his new team mates to help him settle into the Arsenal team. But the reason he might not be in from the start against Hull, in my opinion anyway, is that one of the things that the boss said he needed to work on was coping with the physical strength prevalent in the English game.
Another reason would be to save him for the Champions League clash with Barcelona on Tuesday and I think that European football might be much more to his liking at the minute. Elneny has fantastic energy in the middle of the pitch and we will need as much of that as possible against the tiki-taka kings.
He also has a lot of European experience from his time with the Swiss champions Basel. 37 games worth of experience in fact, 11 of them in the Champions League and I am sure this is where he caught the eye of Wenger and the Arsenal scouting team.
What do you think of the idea of playing Elneny instead of Ramsey against Barca? It might take away some attacking threat but it would certainly make us harder to beat and we will have to play on the counter against them anyway.
What is this nonsense about players ‘needing time to settle’ at arsenal. I see players at other clubs being thrown into the fold barely after arriving and having a huge impact. Imbula at Stoke, Khazri and Kone at Sunderland etc.Why do arsenal players take like six months to settle? Aren’t they in training every week with their teammates? is it homesickness?
The wenger ideology
and when they finally are allowed to play, the become even rustier, out of shape and out of form cuz of lack of game time
@antiwenger
It’s called”getting a player used to our style of play” Aw gauges how well a player has assimilated into our playing style during training. No 2 players are alike. By comparing us to stoke and sunderland just goes to show how out of touch you really are.
Worked for Pirès.
Cazorla was thrown in straight away against Sunderland, so does Ozil and the rest is history!
Let’s see how Elneny will perform against Hull as a starter. For I expect the Boss to start him in the middle of the park alongside Flamini at the Gunners’ base, while Ramsey and Coquelin are rested on the bench to start in the Barca game.
an what’s the probability that EL-neny will play against Hull in the FA cup, Let alone featuring in the UCL?
How many games under his belt so far?
Khazri of sunderland has played more games than EL-neny this year…. Let that sink in
@sa
You’ve morphed into the echo chamber for everything stupid out here dude..Keep hope alive though.
Elneny had a baby recently and he had arrangements prior to signing to be there for his baby.
Family man.
Let that sink in.
What is certain to me is that Elneny will start again Hull alongside Flamin while J.Campbell and Chamberlain will occupy flanks,Iwobi behind Walcot.
About Barca am not sure about Wenger’s plan but would love to see the midfield trio of Le Coq,Elneny and Ramsey to curb Barca’s force at the middle and give Ozil more licence to room around when counter attacking.COYG
Loosing to Barcelona won’t be a disaster but we should prepare well and let people know we’re up to the task. Lots have buried us before the game but I’m not seeing it that way at all. Let’s go all out and make the bookies pay for writing us off. COYG
Wow, the writer is a genius. Might as well start Iwobi over Ozil while we’re at it. Oh, and the perfect night for further experimentation with Chambers at CB. Barca won’t know what hit them!
Chambers at CB isn’t exactly experimentation.
Do you even watch football?
Imagine Per collaborated with Chambers in the center against the MSN trio. That sounds like BF giant turtle combined with naivety. Oh dear, I hope Kos and Gab fit to play next week.
Only if we play a high line, Per is really great when we have our backs to the wall and the def can’t push forward… which I would bet that Barca could force upon us.
Gabriels passing isn’t as good as Pers, if we are to play on the counter then having someone who can pass out from the back is important, how on earth are counter attacks suppose to start when players can’t pass out the back?
If you have watched just a singler game of football then you would see that Gabriel isn’t as good on the ball as Per is, Per is also the CB that we rely upon to pass the ball out from the back, just watch how players will look to pass Per the ball before any other CB. The players know Per is good at passing, so do many fans who actually watch every Arsenal game without fail.
Per is good at passing? Maybe. He does do a whole lot of sideways and backwards passing.
Passing out? Maybe while dodging a goal bound ball but certainly not to start a counterattack.
Plus he’s less of a set piece threat than Sanchez, who’s what – 2 feet shorter.
Please, leave this Per the Great fiction alone.