Will Mohamed Elneny or El Niño as Big Raddy has appropriately tagged him, breathe a warm wind of change through Arsenal’s midfield?
He is a player of whom Arsene Wenger has high hopes.
Make no mistake, Elneny has not been brought in to warm the bench despite what some may describe as being a bit on the ‘cheap’ side. His ability to defend and bring the ball forward together with his tenacity in the tackle and accurate distribution mean that Elneny will be serious competition to Coquelin when he returns to full fitness.
Arsene has already stated that because he has played in Europe Elneny should be ready for the EPL and we expect to see him on the bench against Stoke – or he may even start?
Is this because Flamini is running out of steam, or because time has caught up with Arteta? My guess is yes.
Arsene loves to attack, Elneny always look to pass the ball forward, he is an archetypal Wenger signing. No one had high expectations of Koscielny when he arrived, he is now arguably the best centre back in the EPL.
So expect great things from our new signing. Expect him to impress from the off and to be an ever present influence in our quest for the title.
Rasp
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
El Neny has the potential to become a great DM but he won’t be like Makelele – he will be more like a Ramires with its pros and cons…
Pros – great engine, great ability to run passed opponent, a good shot from outside the surface, good passing range
Cons – not as disciplined as we would like as he tends to bomb around.
I think that if AW manages him well, we have a real gem in our hands and I am sure he will cope physically to our leagues demand. We want El Neny to become much better than Coquelin and given that Coquelin was in the starting XI as DM of the EPL, we would be happy if El Neny were much better than him
At the moment – he is more of a Ramsey/Wilshere than a Coquelin/Flamini
I would also encourage AW to release Arteta and Flamini at the end of the season and buy Xabi Alonso or Miguel Veloso. Both of them are available…
Late to the party, but interesting and revealing comments yesterday/this morning, especially Chas’s reminiscence of a church service – which made me chuckle.
— “the sunlight coming through the high church windows lighting up the incense from the thurifer”
Most services, I would assume, would burn incense in a thurible which is carried by the thurifer – but Chas has always lit up proceedings – so why not the thurifer too? 😀
El Nenny’s agent has claimed that his transfer fee was much higher than the £5m – £7.5m that has been reported.
Anyway, what a ridiculous way of assessing a player’s worth to team – there have been many players who have cost £40m, £50m etc and turned out to be c-rap.
Nice read Rasp.
I don’t know anything about El Niño but this from RC78, who seems to know something, is interesting.
“At the moment – he is more of a Ramsey/Wilshere than a Coquelin/Flamini”
This implies that he isn’t a DM at all.
Thanks Rasp. I wonder if he is competition for Le Coq or potentially a replacement for Santi……sorry Eddie….. I would imagine Santi’s injury likely means he will not have any significant further impact on first team proceedings this season, and also he will be approaching 32 at the start of next season, I wonder if his much touted “finishing his career in Spain” may be on the horizon now and that he may depart with the other senior custodians of Arteta, Flamini and Rosicky.
I always said I thought the best DM addition would be one that could play both with as well as of in place of Le Coq. Hopefully El Nenny can be that player.
Hi LB and GB. Yes it is clear that Elneny is more than a HM, Arsene has said as much, but also that he can play that role if required.
The Santi replacement had occurred to me as well GB 🙂
El Nino will blow us all away hopefully.
Cheers, Rasp.
Morning all, and R.A….good news, the independent has stated we are going for your favourite Ukrainian chappy…..so that’s that in the bag then 🙂
RA
Didn’t know you were Cafflic.
Either that or I inspired you to use google.
You’ll be telling me that presents come from the sack and not from Santa next. 🙂
Is that Armandalegko?
Hang on, I just found this masonic symbol.
You’re not a mason are you, RA?
Chas, @11:47,
That makes a change from the accusation I can only spell with the aid of a dictionary. 🙂
Many religions use thuribles in preference to setting the thurifer on fire.
Oddly enough, I know what dharma means, and I am not a Hindu; I also know what Hannukkah means and I am not Jewish either.
I belong to the church of agnostics – just like the founder, Micky. 🙂
You cannot fool me, Chas, that is Aladdin’s Lamp, and no I am not! 🙂
I suppose you wouldn’t be allowed to tell me if you were. 🙂
I thought dharma was Buddhist – just shows what I know.
You masons like a fire, don’t you?
Or is that something else?
Ah, just googled it and it might refer to the ‘firing’ of glasses.
Thanks for the clip chas … it confirms everything I’ve said 😆
Oooo, what a pleasant surprise Rasp, thank you
Looks like Song, and if he’s got the passing ability of the great man, I’ll be happy 🙂
Lads, lads, lads, he’s the replacement for Aaron 🙄 durrr, that way Aaron can get back on the right, or be sold to Madrid for squillions 🙂
Crikey
Chelsea Everton 3-3 with Terry scoring an off side winner in the 90+8th minute
City score 4 😦
Lovely pic of Tomacz. It would be lovely if he could get some pitch time this season. We have missed his positivity.
El Nino? In Wenger We Trust 😉
Evening Chas
Evening Erik
Erik
Read your comment about Mrs E not liking the lovely fragrant aroma of White Company candles. Something doesn’t add up I’m afraid. She married you, and you come with that rather sickly sweet stink all hippies have clinging to their robes.
Leicester winning
There is a plus, it keeps Spuds pegged back
If it came to a choice, who’d you rather came 4th, Spuds or Utd?
I’d go Utd, as they’d buy their way there ultimately so it’d only delay the inevitable
Arsenal or City to win the title with Spurs third.Amen 😉 Chelsea to avoid relegation ,,,,,,,,just
Micky. All those hours cavorting in the gong bath have dissipated the stick of pachouli oil and cannabis resin. Shame really.
Spurs 3rd!!!!
The choice was for 4th, or was that a murky glass ball prediction? 🙂
Ah patchouli oil. Is that the stench you get when you go past one of those godawful ethnic shit shops that all sell crystals and bongs and stuff
I always associate patchouli stink with post offices in this country 🙂 Awful places, like something from the 19th century
Kelsey – is it what you have seen in your balls or you just checked the results? Bloody Aguero, Spurs did well, thank God Villa scored. Bacuna is a nasty piece of work, almost decked Vardi
Eddie
Lets play. My end of term prediction:
City
Arsenal
Utd
Spurs
micky – don’t even go there, pleaze. If we don’t win the league this season, then we never will. Sadly it is looking that way, isn’t it? I asked you this question before – if we flop it, again, will it be Wenger’s worse cockup? Will he resign in the summer?
I can see me being besides myself already
Oh no Eddie, I definitely think we CAN win the league, and the FAC for that matter, but whatever happens, we’ll all be beside each other on a sofa 🙂
Talking of sofas, I’m off to join my daughter to watch a film.
’till dawn
Eddie has done a sneaky one changed from Santi to Hector .
I can’t answer your question at 7.17pm I might get told off 😉
If we buy 5 or 6 playes in the next two wweeks we might nick it on goal difference but in honesty this league will be won by default this year and we have never had such a good chance.
I also reckon that added to my list of departures will be Wilshere,he’s knackered his ankles for good.Shame.
You are beside yourself already.
Enjoy it, win, lose or draw.
Be disgraceful.
I don’t drink 🙂
kels – yep, my thoughts precisely. We wasted far too many points and it is the payback time now
How do you know about Jack? Balls or media? I soooo hope it is not true
I don’t understand the thinking behind “if we don’t win it this year we never will”.
It assumes :
1. That AFC cannot buy players the equal to the Oiled Up clubs.
2. That our current squad will get worse
3. That the disharmony at Chavs and MU will disappear.
4. That the young players coming through are worse than our rivals
5. That our manager is incapable.
I could go on but there is a review of the cricket on TV.
Pachouli oil
Wow, I am speechless.
wow, wow wow Raddy, I made no such assumptions! Talking about jumping to conclusions!
What I said was this season we had opportunities knocking on our door. Will Chavs and ManU be that poor again? Doubt it. Will City be as inconsistent as they were with Aguero injured? Doubt it. Will we have better players in our squad than we do now? Maybe.
We had an incredible chance to ran away with the title, but we didn’t.
Kels – yep, fickle fan. Upgraded Santi for a younger, fitter version, you know, what men do with wives?
Nice one Rasp
Yes, the signing of Elneny excites me. Will be interesting to see how Arsene deploys him?
In my experience there are two types of Egyptians. Those who are prepared to die and share the tomb of there Pharoaoh, it helps if your a eunuch. If he’s this type, he will play a disciplined holding role, and be a lovely platonic friend to many women.
If however, he gets very angry when someone mentions sacred texts or Peter Cushing, then he will be out to do a Ramsey.
I completely agree with Raddy. This is not our best chance to win the league, it is just the start of many chances yet to come.
The same people that hark on about our golden opportunity are the same people that 12 months ago banged on about Arsene been a busted flush that was not capable of mounting a genuine title Challange.
They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.
Hi TMHT, this is just for you ……
Although I prefer this one by The Bangles ….
Most importantly, esp. for this HM/ B2B role, Elneny is not injury-prone. He had only 2 minor injuries during his 3-year stay with Basel (5 days for shoulder & 12 days for arm as recorded).
Should he play consistently well in his role, he could be a regular fixture in our starting team and an important player of our engine room.
Morning, kelsey.
Dragging it down.
Yeah, sod him 🙂
Planning the first surf since sept. today. Just waiting for some light to check out webcam. It’s tense here
Exciting stuff – good luck
Water temp down to single figures. Preparing flask. Heinz tomato.
Kinda like an Ant ‘n Duck “pretendy pack for beginners” 🙂
Snow!!! So pretty 🙂 I feel like skiing
If I was very, very poor and someone offered me a million geebs to go surfing I would tell them to feck off
Morning All,
For a mill I would try surfing in the Arctic, though much would depend upon the value of the Geeb
Mrs Raddy is going sea swimming today – the outside temps are minus 7 and the sea temp is 4C !! I will be holding the warm towel
The first cat vid is a masterpiece, thank you chas.
Raddy – is she really????? No, that is unbelievable!! Congrats, you have some woman there
I watched Newcastle v West ham game last night and highlights this morning. What a fantastic game, almost as good as ours v Pool!!
What an exciting season we are having! Nothing can be taken for granted. It somehow restored my faith in the game, clearly money can’t buy you anything
Sea swimming?????
Does she do this often or is this a one off, special occasion kind of thing?
EIGHTEEN
LB 🙂 I am glad I’m not the only one shocked
Tony Pulis was 57 yesterday, looks 67 at least
LB. She swims stupidly often, must be the Viking ancestry
Better get started on the PM …. which will be late, sorry.
There is a New POst
Uefa will keep its system of getting an extra official behind every aim-line
as well as the technology.
Cosl.com.sg
A warm wind of change blows through Arsenal’s midfield |
Great blog you have here but I was curious if you knew of any user discussion forums
that cover the same topics discussed in this article?
I’d really like to be a part of online community where
I can get feed-back from other experienced people that share the same interest.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
Many thanks!