Arsenal: Is Mohamed Elneny the best solution to our midfield plight?

You don’t know what you have until it’s gone! That seems to be the unfortunate reality of our post-Granit Xhaka world as, although only two games have been played since he sustained a significant knee injury against Tottenham, early indications suggest the Arsenal midfield is already beginning to creak in his absence.

The Swiss international’s future unavailability has prompted Mikel Arteta to explore various options to try and mitigate the damage – including a Lokonga/Partey pivot at Brighton and deploying the Ghanaian as a lone defensive midfielder against Crystal Palace.

However, with each of these choices falling alarmingly short of the mark, is this an opportune moment to bring Mohamed Elneny back into the team?

Renowned for his finite skillset and conservative style of play, Elneny is not an obvious candidate to initiate positive central change, and his only on-pitch contribution so far this league season came as part of the second half damage-control exercise away to Man City. But while it may therefore seem strange to propose him as a solution to our current plight, a brief review of Monday night intimates that his limited repertoire is ideal for Arsenal’s faltering engine room.

Mohamed Elneny could be the best midfield solution for Arsenal against Aston Villa and beyond as they try to cope in Granit Xhaka’s absence

Similar to our south coast trip at the start of the month, the Gunners’ performance against Vieira’s Eagles – particularly after taking the lead – left a lot to be desired. A committed and energetic first fifteen minutes quickly dissipated and we became increasingly careless as the game wore on, struggling immensely with the visitors’ pressure and losing out on almost every second ball.

As well as the disappointing viewing, some damning statistics from the stalemate further emphasise our loss of composure. As noted by Scott Willis, in the 30 minutes following Aubameyang’s opening strike Arsenal completed just nine sequences involving three or more passes, while only three sequences of five or more passes were registered during this time.

These numbers highlight our repeated failure to keep the ball at a key moment of the match, and this subsequently undermined any effort to maintain attacking phases and grab the all-important second goal.

Such shortcomings are something Elneny could help to address as he excels at keeping and recycling possession and often chooses the safe option when on the ball which, although not particularly exciting to watch, may prevent the unnecessary individual errors that cost us so dearly last time out.

Furthermore, he always offers full commitment when selected and – after Xhaka – is arguably one of the most positionally-disciplined players in the squad, something that should give us a greater midfield presence than we have seen recently and provide the platform required to facilitate prolonged passing phases. This will, in turn, help us to sustain attacks in offensive areas.

Of course, Elneny is not a long-term solution to the problem, and he certainly won’t add much to other aspects of the team, such as our line-breaking ability against stubborn sides or unlocking the abundant potential of our striking department.

What he is, however, is one of the most dependable figures at the manager’s disposal and the improvements he would bring to our possession play, in addition to the numerical benefits of a midfield pivot, could lay the groundwork for a better collective performance.