Arsene Wenger: This is why I spent £5m on relatively unknown midfielder

ARSENE WENGER used his Stoke pre-match press conference to explain why Arsenal have spent £5m on a relatively unknown Egypt international Mohamed Elneny – although he has not yet decided to give him a baptism of fire at the Britannia Stadium.

 

Arsene Wenger has revealed why Arsenal have signed Mohamed Elneny

 

“He is available for selection, I haven’t decided yet,” Wenger said. “I have to see how everyone has recovered. Apparently we have no injuries from the Liverpool game, so he is a possibility to be in the squad for Sunday.

“He’s a defensive midfielder who can contribute in an area where we are short. He is also a promising player who has already adapted to Europe, he is not straight from Egypt to England - he has played three years in Switzerland.

“I expect him to develop into a very strong player because he has both sides of the game, he can defend and he can attack and that’s the way we want to play in midfield.

 

“Where will his ultimate strength be? I need to know more about him with daily contact to see how well he can win the ball in the Premier League. That will be decisive to transform him into a more defensive or much more of a box-to-box player.”

Wenger hinted that it may mark the end of his January business as prefers to wait for his injured players to return to fill the gaps in the squad.

“Ideally, personally I would prefer to have the players back from injuries, like Danny Welbeck for example, who has been out since April last year,” Wenger

 

“He’s now two or three weeks away and I’m confident that I won’t find a better player than Welbeck on the market today. If you give me the choice, I would prefer to have all my injured players back and go in to the end of the season with everybody available.”

The first of his players who could be back from injury is Alexis Sanchez – out since November but in contention for a place on Sunday.

“Our intention is to use Sanchez as another weapon,” he said. “At the moment we are at the beginning of January, we are in a strong position in the league and we have qualified in the Champions League. We are still in the FA Cup so overall we are still in a position where we can make our season a fantastic season.

“The fact that we have players coming back from injuries will help, yes.”