The setting couldn’t have been much tougher for Mohamed Elneny’s full Premier League debut, but the Egyptian midfielder impressed.

Facing Spurs away in a north London derby is pretty daunting, but the January signing came through it excellently. After a strong display fans will want to see more of him, but the player’s first though was to thank the manager for trusting him.

“Arsene Wenger has confidence in my abilities and the abilities of all the players…we had a good game against a strong opponent,” Elneny said after his full Premier League debut.

“I wanted to prove that I deserved a place in the starting line-up, and I think I earned my place today.”

Not only did Elneny prove he was worth a place on Saturday, he showed that he deserves selection more often as we approach the end of the season. Arsenal have struggled without a midfielder calm on the ball and calm off it, but he appears to be both.

With Aaron Ramsey not in the best form and Francis Coquelin too erratic at times (as he was at the weekend) there’s no reason not to play Elneny with some regularity. He’s sure to start against Hull City on Tuesday evening, and another good performance would put him firmly in Wenger’s plans for the coming weeks.