First Elneny impressions after his Arsenal debut

Saturday saw the latest Arsenal star, Mohamed Elneny, make his Gunners debut and @DanGaleaStJohn saw many positives from the Egyptian’s display.

All of us were extremely eager to see Mohammed ElNeny in an Arsenal shirt following two games on the bench. And on Saturday, the moment duly arrived.

Now, many fans were angry at Wenger for not throwing the Egyptian into the Stoke/Chelsea games, however, I was not one of them, and I maintain further that Elneny still needs to adapt to the rigorous league that he now finds himself in. I do not mean any disrespect towards the Swiss league, but this move is a huge step forward for Elneny.

My first impression of Elneny was of mild disappointment, like when you use your bet365 bonus code 2016 and your bet doesn’t come in! His first ever thing of note was a foul. A couple of misplaced passes followed. But then, as the game wore on, my impression changed. He was everywhere. Attacking, defending, everything. I have to say that he does remind me a bit of Ramsey, and I can see him chipping in with a couple of goals this season.

I counted at least four shots from him, which is a very encouraging sign, seeing as most of our players prefer to pass the ball around the six yard box half a dozen times before shooting.

Obviously, I don’t expect him to be thrown into the starting 11 ahead of the more experienced players, however, I do expect him to come to grasp with the toughness of the league fairly quickly. His tenacity was there for all to see, but his inexperience is obviously a major factor why Wenger chose this game versus a championship side to be his first for the club.

His partnership with Coquelin is one that will hopefully blossom in the future, especially with Cazorla getting older. It would seem that the plan for his debut was to be given the ability to roam forward freely, with Coquelin protecting the back four.

I’m sure that we’ll see even more positives in the future from our new Egyptian.