The 25 year old Egyptian joined Arsenal last season from Basle and had a mixed season featuring only 14 times in the Premier League. In those appearances he showed glimpses of how good he can be but was unable to get a decent run in the team.
This pre-season he has featured quite a bit and has shown qualities that we have missed since the time of Emmanuel Petit.
In the Community shield victory against Chelsea on Sunday he was my man of the match. He was constantly breaking up or slowing down Chelsea's counter-attacks and popped up regularly in the final third to join in our attacks. He has the ability and willingness to shoot from range and together with Xhaka brings that added threat to our midfield.
Our midfield has very good depth with Xhaka, Coquelin, Ramsey, Ozil, Wilshere, Elneny, Cazorla, Chamberlain and the young prospect Reine-Adelaide.
I don't mind Coquelin as our CDM but Elneny seems to be able to break up opposition play just as well without getting carded and also get around the opposition box with ease.
Check out this video of Elneny vs Chelsea this passed Sunday.
I think he is the box to box midfielder we have been missing in the recent passed.