Midfield has been an issue for Arsenal for a lot of this season, so it was nice to see last night that it functioned pretty well during the 3-0 win over West Ham.
Granit Xhaka (107/120 passes) and Mohamed Elneny (69/71 passes) were paired together and helped the Gunners assume some control over the game, particularly in the second period.
The Swiss international showed nice vision and kept himself out of the referee’s notebook, while Elneny help keep things ticking with his movement and availability.
Afterwards, Arsene Wenger praised the Egyptian for his performance and pointed out what he brings to the side.
“He gives us fluency,” he said. “Elneny is a continuity player who is a generous player and wants to help the team.
“His attitude is always to help the team and he is always available. It’s a quality. He’s quickly available. There are two kinds of availability in midfield.
“Ones who straight away in a fraction of seconds can understand where he has to go to get the ball and these kind of players.”
The goals scored brought the total for the season to 101 in all competitions, the first Premier League side to break that barrier this campaign.
“Somebody just reminded me that we have scored more than 100 goals already this season,” said Wenger, “so going forward we have always been good, but defensively in recent weeks we were not efficient enough.”
A clean sheet is then especially welcome.
He’s an Egyptian international mate, not Swiss 🙂
An Egyptian international is statement of facts,why down voting Alex?
Me too, misread every thing…
Because he was talking about Xhaka.
The paragraph can be split into two parts:
“Granit Xhaka (107/120 passes) and Mohamed Elneny (69/71 passes) were paired together and helped the Gunners assume some control over the game, particularly in the second period.
He’s talking about both Xhaka and Elneny, but in this sentence, he refers to them respectively:
“The Swiss international showed nice vision and kept himself out of the referee’s notebook, while Elneny help keep things ticking with his movement and availability.”
Note the “while Elneny”-bit there confirming that the bit about the Swiss international is indeed about Xhaka, and not Elneny.
Ah sorry, i misread the sentences, silly me 😀
He’s a goodun. Probably deserves to play a bit more for me. Doesn’t seem like the kind of chap to pull a Debuchy if he’s not playing either.
Decent goal tally when you consider Elneny, Xhaka, Ramsey and Coq don’t score!
Ramsey hasn’t scored and doesn’t score not same thing.
It’s only taken wenger 8 months to work out what any Arsenal fan with a brain has known for about 7 months, that Elneney and Xhaka is our best CM combo.
Yeah exactly, if he knew this then whats Elneny been doing sitting on the bench for so long?
He has been to afcon, then got injured vs Bayern (?). He just got fit
Both true but there’s still been plenty of games where he’s been available and benched
There have been games where when you play Elneny, the ball just goes from side to side, no creativity. Yesterday, ElNeny was brilliantly getting into those pockets of spaces. His performance was very balanced with forward runs and backward runs. Granted yes, that West ham were laying off the ball with tons of empty pockets of space between their players. But still, nonetheless a brilliant performance. The past games, we’ve been screwing it up even against weak opposition, so it’s nice to see yesterday’s performance from the entire team. ElNeny is brilliant and rarely makes mistakes, but i think that… Read more »
He has had so many niggles… (as as the Perez)
Love your name. Keep it up and you will soon be justifying it.
Better than Cazorla and an ‘in form’ Coquelin?
It is a shame that Coquelin has had a generally poor season and I do think Elneny should have played more often, but different players suit playing against different opposition.
I agree. The Coq is good at cleaning up the midfield, when he stays back and gives the CB n fullbacks cover, he is brilliant. But then Wenger tried to turn him into a Kante or Veratti n it backfired. We need Coq to stop making forward runs. His tackles and interceptions are brilliant when he isn’t up front trying to be involved in an attacking move. Clearly this has to be down to the manager who provided him with those instructions.
Bring back the old Coq
That is probably due to our forward line not getting enough done offensively. And so our defensive midfielder has to aid them like Song had to do in the past. Sadly the reverse does not happen in our offensive players aiding in our defending.
I’m just waiting for Santori to come in and post his thesis again in why doesn’t like elneny.
And I have stated my case quite clearly. It was just a matter of time a post (if not 7amkickoff)will publish his passing statistics as being efficient ignoring the fact most of those passes were simple short passes which did not help drive the team forward. Nor is Elneny that robust in tackles. You could look at passing statistics by Flamini and make the same case that he gives us ‘efficiency’ because Flamini has had 90% passing completion rates on many ocassions which are largely ignored because of certain bias. And Flamini also weighed in with many key passes. Elneny… Read more »
Hopefully wenger will give this partnership and the same players a few games to grow as the team seemed much better balanced, having the confidence return is great for the run in and our semi final.
Now Wenger has finally given Elneny a chance (in his annual give a kid a break milestone, whereby around this time in the year he finally plays a player we’ve all been asking him to play and the player does well and helps us in our run in), hopefully Wenger will do the same with Perez once he’s fit. No offence to Welbeck, but he doesn’t look sharp yet (and imo has always been questionable if he would be frequent goal scorer) and since Wenger seems to have moved Sanchez back to LW, no time like now to give Lucas… Read more »
Wenger knows Sanchez will leave and is training Welbeck as CF.
As much as I would like to see Perez play he is injured, no?
I’d guess that AW wanted a bit of height in the forwards but also wanted the inter-change-ability that Alexis, Welbeck and Theo can do (and is unfortunately the weakness in playing Giroud as CF).
Elneny and a fit and inform Ramsey are the best options to pair Xhaka. Elneny might not be flashy, but he’s an intelligent player how knows how and where to receive the ball and keep the game flowing. When he pairs Xhaka, it’s difficult for opponents to pick out who to press. This is what Wenger should’ve been doing instead of trying to play him as a b2b which he isn’t. I’d like to see how a 4-3-3 with a midfield 3 of Xhaka, Elneny and Ramsey/Ox with Ozil on the left would work. Not to get carried away though….it’s… Read more »
ozil on the left? poor nacho……
What has Ramsey or Ox done in the last three years to justify moving one of the most creative players on the planet out of position to accomodate them? Ramsey needs to be sold and Ox is still a work in progress as far as I’m concerned.
When was Ramsey last fit and in form. 3 years ago?
Our very own Kante.
Far from it. No way a Kante.
Look at highlights 12’06 and 73’59
Loses the ball out so easily and both were near misses for West Ham as a result.
Not strong enough to hold and doesn’t weigh in with many key passes (unlike Flamini even)
OK considering opposition but far from ideal.
Now that was better. We actually left happy last night. Big improvement in overall stability and shape.
One question how the Fuck does Atkinson get away with his non decisions for us and shit ones against us? Poxy yid!
Please do not use ‘yid’ as an insult.
That is all.
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Cheers blogs!
Gabriel and Elneny was the big positives for me last night. After his shaky appearences in pre season I can’t seem to remember the last time Gabriel had a bad game for us. Reeeeeally looking forward to seeing Wenger send Mo on loan next season while keeping Aaron “no chemistry” Ramsey :))))
Xhaka didn’t get booked??? What the fuck going on!!!!
Not sure how often, post Santi, ElNeny and Xhaka have been available at the same time. Suspensions and international duty, plus an early pairing or two that maybe didn’t jell quite right, limited opportunities.
In Santi’s absence, with Ozil and Alexis being mindful to help out, it looks like a good pairing.
Kudos to Theo on the dribbles!
Our Swisgyptian midfield is my favorite midfield.
Here are the facts: Premier League games Only. Central Defensive Partnerships so far after 29 games Started and played more than 45 min. Individuals P W D L Xhaka 20 12 4 4 Coquelin 18 7 5 6 Elnany 7 4 2 1 Carzola 6 6 0 0 OX 5 1 1 3 Ramsey 2 2 0 0 Partnerships P W D L Xhaka/Coquelin 9 3 3 3 Xhaka/Elnany 3 3 0 0 Xhaka/Carzola 4 4 0 0 Xhaka/Ramsey 2 2 0 0 Xhaka/OX 2 0 1 1 Coquelin/Elnany 4 1 2 1 Coquelin/OX 3 1 0 2 Coquelin/Carzola 2… Read more »
What is a “Carzola”? If you’re referring to our injured Spanish midfielder, it’s Cazorla. Ca-ZOR-la. It’s not difficult, and he’s been here nearly five years. Figure it out.
Good effort but it’s “Elneny” !! ?
Our best midfield combination is Carzola and the Coq. The next best is Elneny and Xhaka.
I think he’s a mediocre player. He plays the safe passes. Sure good completion rate but they are mainly short passes sideways. That said, others who have played more ambitiously have made colossal mistakes. At least by not taking risks (undue) Elneny prevents mistakes. But this can be a problem when we are struggling to go forward which was not the case against a West Ham side low on confidence. I don’t think he is a solution in midfield or gives us necessary balance. I think he is a player who was brought in to be content from the bench… Read more »
Elneny and Perez need More game time in my opinion. Both underatted
Granit is the one giving us efficiency. Elneny is overrated by too many people. Simple short side passes are OK against a team like West Ham but against more serious teams, we will have problems. We still lack balance. Santi is a master stroke by Wenger in converting him to the middle. The Spaniard links us the best largely by experience but also because of ball control. He is one of the few (since Diaby) that can carry the ball at feet from deep or just hold. Ox is a desperate attempt to replicate some of that but the Ox… Read more »
Elneny looks solid but uninspiring. With him and Xhaka there isn’t much creativity at the base of midfield and against bigger better teams I think that will be an issue.
An argument that Elneny is mediocre because he plays too many small, lateral passes seems to me an argument that lacks understanding of the game itself. Did you happen to notice the small “keep the f$&#’n ball” passes made between Ozil and Sanchez in the second half? The point of that is to let people move, make defenders open lanes, and generally keep the f$&#’n ball. Anyone going to suggest that makes them mediocre? If Elneny makes a ton of passes to red jersies, it means he not making passes to the other team (see Ramsey, Coq, Mustafi, etc.). If… Read more »