Mohammed Elneny used his first Premier League start since the opening day against Liverpool to outpass everybody else on the pitch, but there was a problem.

Being handed a chance to start thanks to the footballing gods inflicting yet another injury of Santi Cazorla, a player without whom Arsenal seem unable to function properly, combined with Granit Xhaka/Jon Moss’s collective stupidity, the Egyptian was solid, if unspectacular, in a side that found it hard to execute their creativity with more sharpness than a piece of butter.

Elneny completed 93 of his 98 passes, a completion rate of 94.9%, but it was certainly telling that the leading passers in the Arsenal side on Saturday were all more defensive players.

Not until 7th place does Mesut Ozil make an appearance.

Before that, the players who made the most passes in our side against Boro were Elneny, Coquelin, Mustafi, Bellerin, Koscielny and Moneral.

But the main problem is that the majority of the passes made, by Elneny and Coquelin especially, were lateral and not vertical, as the graphics below show.

Coquelin passes v Boro
Coquelin passes v Boro
Elneny passes v Boro
Elneny passes v Boro

At least Elneny tried to use the wings to go around the packed centre, but the bulk of his passes went sideways as we searched for someone able to pick a tight lock.

It’s a familiar pattern when you look at Arsenal’s pattern of play for the whole game.

While they dominated possession (74,6% v 25,4%), the lack of movement up top, in part due to a bit of fatigue from midweek and in part to do with Middlesbrough’s disciplined display in marshalling Arsenal’s attackers, meant that only open option was a horizontal move.

In short, it was a game in which Denilson would have wet himself with excitement.

Note in the graphics above how the majority of blue arrows, completed passes, go across the pitch, while the verticals light up the image in red.

Unlike many, I’m not too worried about this result.

It was a hard game and Boro outperformed their season form to date, as teams tend to do when they face us in a s**t run of form.

What matters now is how we respond, and although we will see a number of changes for the EFL Cup game against Reading midweek, we must use it as a chance to get things back on the vertical before any doubt sets into to this psychologically fragile squad.