Although Arsene Wenger praised Mohamed Elneny’s first Arsenal performance against Burnley on Saturday, he did admit that the Egyptian still needs to adapt to the power of our league.
The former Basel defensive midfielder made his first start in our 2-1 win over Burnley at the Emirates in the FA Cup and although he appeared nervous at first, the 23-year-old had a reasonable debut overall.
Speaking after the match, the boss spoke about his effectiveness during the tie but admitted that there is work that needs to be done in regard to his strength, or ‘power’, as Wenger put it.
“I think he has to adapt to the power side of the game but he has shown interesting ingredients like game intelligence, mobility and technical ability and had some good shots,” Wenger said.
“He will be a very interesting player for us.”
It’s true that England in general, not necessarily just the Premier League, is intense and Elneny will need a bit of time before he’s fully comfortable in his new role. However, what we did see was promising and I’m sure it won’t take him long before he’s far more involved with our other fixtures.