Mohamed Elneny will take time to adapt to the demands of the Premier League but his work rate was exceptional after he made his debut in Arsenal's 2-1 FA Cup win over Burnley on Saturday, manager Arsene Wenger said. The central midfielder played the full 90 minutes and repeatedly roamed around Burnley's penalty area in a similar role to the one he had at Swiss side Basel as the Gunners advanced to the FA Cup fifth round. "I felt he started a bit cautious, played a bit secure. He became more adventurous, he had some good shots on goal," Wenger said of the Egyptian international. "His mobility, his work rate was exceptional and for the rest, he needs to adjust to the power of the game in the Premier League. This was a good welcome today and certainly he has learnt a lot today," the Frenchman told the post-match news conference. Although Elneny hardly crafted any defence-splitting passes, his short balls were accurate as Arsenal had the upper hand for most of the game. He had three shooting attempts as he sought to mark his debut with a goal. His effort from the edge of the area was collected by the keeper on 63 minutes before a curling shot went high over from inside the area four minutes later. Deep in stoppage time, a volley by Elneny narrowly missed the target. "It will take him some time to adjust to the power side of our game here, but the intelligence, the mobility and the technical level are good," Wenger added. The 23-year-old joined Arsenal from Basel in January for a reported fee of seven million sterling pounds. (For more sports news andupdates, followAhramOnlineSportson Twitter at@AO_Sportsand onFacebookatAhramOnlineSports.) http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/186317.aspx
