Mikel Arteta waxes lyrical about Arsenal star Mohamed Elneny

Add as preferred source on Google

Mikel Arteta has raved about midfielder Mohamed Elneny after his goalscoring cameo in last night’s 3-1 win over Olympiacos.

He was speaking to the club’s official website after the game and was quizzed on the Egyptian performer.

Elneny smashed in a stunning long-range effort to put the seal on a stunning victory for the Gunners.

Martin Odegaard and Gabriel also got their names on the score-sheet, with Youssef El-Arabi scoring for the hosts.

The hot topic of conversation after the game was Elneny’s showing and Arteta was asked about his game time and his shooting prowess afterwards.

He told the club’s website: “There is another game still to play in the competition and with the level of opponents, anything can happen.

“With Mo in particular and with the subs, I’m extremely delighted because I know how much they want to play and they are key in this competition.

“We need the subs to make an impact and they’ve done it again tonight.

“Mo, in particular, because of how he’s been training so hard to improve his shooting range with Roundy (Steve Round) and he got his reward tonight. It’s very important.”

TBR View: Elneny must strive for consistency

The £50,000-a-week performer has only started one Premier League game since the turn of the year and has fallen out of favour somewhat.

Granit Xhaka has been in good form and Thomas Partey has now returned from his own fitness problems, pushing Elneny down the pecking order.

All he can do is continue to impress when called upon and boy did he do that last night!

His goal was a thing of real beauty and Arteta will have been delighted by his impact.

Getting regular minutes won’t come easy for the 28-year-old but if he stays sharp and keeps impressing from the bench, the starting berths shouldn’t be too far away.