With Arsenal ravaged by injuries throughout their midfield, Mikel Arteta was forced to bring Mohamed Elneny in from the cold on Wednesday night for Arsenal's crunch clash with Chelsea.
The Egyptian international hadn’t started a Premier League game for the Gunners since the turn of the year, and confidence in the 29-year-old was pretty low.
However, Elneny walked off the pitch at Stamford Bridge as arguably the Gunners’ most impressive performer, perhaps only upstaged by fellow outcast Eddie Nketiah who scored twice in the impressive 4-2 victory.
But while the forward stole the headlines, it was the work of Elneny in deeper areas of the pitch that gave Nketiah and fellow attackers the platform to shine.
He was robust without the ball, and purposeful with it.
On the night, no Arsenal player made more interceptions, while in possession, only Martin Odegaard made more progressive passes.
For much of his Arsenal career, such displays have been a rarity. That’s a big reason why as it stands, he’ll be allowed to depart when his contract expires this summer. However, his performance on Wednesday was a reminder of what he is capable of in the right game and with confidence on his side.
The same wasn’t necessarily a flash in the pan either, as his form at the beginning of the year in the African Cup of Nations highlighted. The midfielder started every game for Egypt, playing a key role in his side going all the way to the final. His standout performances during that time saw him named in the tournament's Best XI, alongside stars like Kalidou Koulibaly, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
Elneny wouldn’t have silenced all his doubters on Wednesday’s display alone, yet there’s a good chance he would have won a fair few over, perhaps including his manager who attributed the midfielder's approach to training as one of the big reasons behind the victory at Stamford Bridge.
“I’ve said it many times, it’s the way that they train. If you see the training session that we had on Sunday after the defeat, if you see Mo Elneny, Rob Holding, Nicolas Pepe, how they trained – I think it’s the reason why we won,” he explained.
On the back of such a big victory, and with his confidence high, now could be the ideal time to give Elneny a run of matches in the Arsenal team. It is after all worth assessing just how good he can be prior to the expiry of his contract this summer.
And more displays like Wednesday would certainly give Arteta food for thought ahead of making a final decision on his future in these coming weeks.
