Mohamed Elneny Is A Man Transformed
You think you know a guy. Mohamed Elneny joined Arsenal in 2016 and never made more than 14 appearances in any of his four seasons in North London before he was loaned out to Beşiktaş, presumably to never be seen again. His reputation was that of a tidy player. Good in possession but limited going forward. A real holding midfielder’s holding midfielder.
So imagine everyone’s surprise when it’s Mohamed Elneny bursting forward through the midfield at Old Trafford and driving the team forward like he’s Patrick Vieira helping Arsenal to their first win away to Manchester United in 14 years.
Perhaps that’s a bit much. It’s one game, sure. He also had an xG + xA of 0.00, so the creativity problem Arsenal are experiencing still isn’t quite solved, but he showed a willingness and ability to carry the ball out of midfield that is welcome and unexpected and adds much needed dynamism to Arsenal’s midfield.
Arsenal currently lack a true creative midfielder, or at least one willing to defend. All the calls for Mesut Ozil to be reinstated ignore that he has no interest in playing without the ball, and without that the whole thing collapses. Mikel Arteta’s set up doesn’t allow for passengers, so suddenly there is room for a player like Elneny who, while lacking Ozil’s otherworldly passing ability, has a substantially higher workrate. When he was at Basel, no player covered more distance in the 2015–16 Europa League than Elneny. This is not to make Elneny sound like some plow horse who is just going up and back the field. He was 59 for 65 passing. He played 4 progressive passes, and 7 passes into the final third.
We’ve buried the lede, of course. Thomas Partey was extraordinary and Arsenal’s best player on the day. As they are teammates, this is not a contest, but Partey cost money the club didn’t even have and required an injection of cash from ownership. Elneny came back from loan and it would have been fair to assume was only still around because Arsenal’s constant inability to sell any players they’ve deemed surplus to requirements. In one special performance he has exceeded all expectation for him this year and has perhaps laid the groundwork for what will be a great partnership with Partey. There will be a selection headache for Arteta who, despite the fluidity of his formations, still only selects two central midfielders. There is also Dani Ceballos who has been pretty good himself this season and Granit Xhaka, the captain-in-exile and lynchpin for Arteta’s entire approach thus far.
Arteta had nothing but praise for Elneny post match saying “Obviously I played with him so I know his qualities and who he is as a person, and what he brings to the squad. I like players that have zero ego, who play for the team, who want to contribute regardless of what it is, whether that’s one minute or 96 minutes or just by being there and giving positive feedback all the time.
“He contributes to our culture and is a person who admired by everyone at the football club. And now I think his qualities he’s showing as a footballer, I always believed he had them.”
One of the arguments for signing Thomas Partey was that he could do things that weren’t being asked of him. The data did not show what he was capable of because his role at Atletico Madrid was so limited. Arteta seems to have seen similar qualities in Elneny and trusted that he could show there was more to his game on a very big stage, which says a lot about the quality of the player and the manager. It’s one game, but if Arsenal are to end their years in the wilderness, some players will need to show they have more than people though. Elneny took a big step forward Sunday, and now it’s his job to lose.
