Goal’s Arsenal correspondent Charles Watts has called for Mikel Arteta to drop Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Elneny against West Bromwich Albion.
During the current round of Premier League fixtures, the Gunners travel to The Hawthorns to take on Sam Allardyce’s Baggies in an 8pm kick-off (per Premier League).
The north London side comes into the game off back-to-back victories against Chelsea and Brighton & Hove Albion (per Transfermarkt).
In both the game against the Blues and the victory over the Seagulls, Elneny started for the Gunners alongside Granit Xhaka in midfield and played the full match.
During the latest video on Charles Watts’ YouTube channel, the reporter aired his belief that Arteta should drop the Egyptian for the trip to the Midlands.
He said: “Elneny has started week in, week out alongside Xhaka recently. I think it’s time to give Elneny a break.
“For me, I’d bring in [Dani] Ceballos for this one. I think especially given Arsenal are going to have an awful lot of the ball, I think you have that little bit of extra guile with Ceballos than you would with Elneny.
“I thought Elneny was really poor against Brighton. I didn’t think he was great against Chelsea either, certainly in the first half.
“I just think I’d be going with Ceballos alongside Xhaka in this one to try and unlock what’s going to be a very, very compact West Brom defence.”
TIF Thoughts on what Charles Watts said about Mohamed Elneny…
As can be seen in what the journalist had to say, he believes that Elneny has been poor recently and that Ceballos would be more of a threat against the Baggies.
Who should start against West Brom?
Elneny
Ceballos
Certainly, across the season as a whole, the Egyptian has not been in impressive form for Arsenal as he has made 10 league appearances and neither scored nor assisted a goal (per WhoScored).
Over the outings, the 28-year-old midfielder has earned a weak 6.48/10 average rating, making him the 10th-worst performer for the Gunners in the league.
So, despite the fact that Elneny has started in the previous five Premier League games for Arsenal, perhaps it may be a smart move from Arteta to make the ruthless decision to drop the £6.3m-rated midfielder.