Arsenal: Mohamed Elneny Has Reinvited Himself Into Conversation

Arsenal’s primary subplot this season has been figuring out the best combination in the middle of the pitch and Mohamed Elneny has reentered the conversation.

Arsenal has tried just about every combination of midfielders in an attempt to find the duo that actual works consistently. Like Coqzorla, just with less injury problems and more versatility. It got so desperate that Arsene Wenger swapped his automatic 4-2-3-1 formation for a 4-3-3. Which was all kinds of shocking and at least half way effective.

But naturally, the reversion had to come and now we are back to figuring out howto stabilize this midfield base while Mesut Ozil does his thing in the attack.

Starting Granit Xhaka and Francis Coquelin was just as frustrating as it was the last time. Manchester City didn’t have much trouble causing that duo problems and it was rather obvious that it was time to try another.

And so, with the return of Mohamed Elneny, Wenger went for it. A combination that has been tried before, but hell, let’s give it another shot.

As we saw, it worked masterfully. So masterfully, that this new combination of Xhaka and Elneny needs to be explored to the fullest extent of its capabilities. I have been preaching all season that maximizing Xhaka should be the way to go and Elneny did that.

But this isn’t about Xhaka. It’s about Elneny and how well he did his part.

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The Egyptian is simply tireless. He covered every blade of grass on that pitch and allowed Xhaka to do his own thing. He contributed to defending Emi Martinez and he put pressure on Darren Randolph.

Seriously. Every blade of grass.

This unlocked so many capabilities that we didn’t even know we had. For starters, Elneny completed a massive 97% of his passes. He was brave in his attacking and smart in his defending. He actually showed us something we haven’t seen in any other midfielder and it was absolutely enough to jam him right back into the conversation.

The combination of abilities that Elneny brought was like a mash-up of some of the best features of our other midfield options. He brought the tenacity of Francis Coquelin, the control of Santi Cazorla, the engine of Aaron Ramsey and the audaciousness of Alex Oxalde-Chamberlain.

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That being said, we need to see this consistently. Elneny has looked strong and in control before, but seeing it consecutively is what is going to potentially solidify his place.

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