Arsenal: Danny Welbeck entering Mohamed Elneny territory

Danny Welbeck was supposed to be another slick solution for Arsenal, but he is starting to share one massive trait with Mohamed Elneny.

Arsenal’s fortunes early on this season have been a massive mixed bag and naturally, there are going to be people out there that believe that this is all down to Alexis Sanchez being away from the squad.

In his stead, Danny Welbeck has started and shown us more of what we already knew he had – tremendous athleticism, superb strength, an intelligent footballing mind and well, an inability to be a reliable finisher.

Which is kind of a large drawback when evaluating a forward.

There are moments of such profound brilliance by Welbeck and moments where I’m reminded that I shouldn’t be fooled by the moments of profound brilliance.

Which made me think of Mohamed Elneny and the traits these two share, as well as the similar boat they are in.

Both have tons of positives and will be a big piece of the puzzle, particularly in emergencies. But the upside that we expected to be there just isn’t showing up. They are still great utility players, but don’t expect them to grow into superstars. Because we have been waiting for a couples years now for that to happen and, in Welbeck’s case in particular, it just isn’t happening.

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I’ve been fooled by superb performances by the two of these players more than once. Each time they come back down to their human forms incredibly quickly, proving that while the upside is certainly there, the reliability isn’t.

And let me just clarify, I am not criticizing these guys for what they are not able to do. Moreso just observing that they are both very similar in this regard. They both work incredibly hard and you can tell that they just want to succeed at this game that they love.

But the upper-echelon of ability just isn’t there. That higher level of influence that you see from guys like Alexis, who work hard and also have that fine-tuned edge that makes them better than everyone else.

They always say that hard work pays off and with these two, it has. Their hard work has landed them a spot on a massive club like Arsenal. But there still has to be another level above just hard work to really solidify the greats and I think we are getting to the point where we can conclude that neither Elneny nor Welbeck has that.

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Which doesn’t change much in the long run. I still find them as useful utility players and I hope that there is still time for them to prove me wrong.

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