Arsenal will announce the signing of Mohamed Elneny from FC Basel as soon as the January transfer window opens and the deal is officially completed.
Elneny has reportedly agreed a contract with Arsenal and underwent a medical on Tuesday, with the English Premier League club already agreeing a transfer fee with FC Basel. That transfer fee is thought to be around the £5-6million mark, which could yet prove to be a bargain, considering Elneny is still only 23.
Wenger is in need of a defensive midfielder, following injuries to Francis Coquelin and Mikel Arteta, and realising the likes of Victor Wanyama and Lars Bender will be unavailable in January. William Carvalho and Ruben Neves, two other players linked with a move, have probably been deemed as too expensive as well, leaving the Arsenal manager to quickly move to seal the transfer of Elneny.
The transfer will be subject to the Egypt international passing the medical and earning a work permit, which, again, is not expected to be a problem, considering he is a regular for his national team. Elneny will sign a contract worth around £60,000 a week, according to the Daily Mirror, which, again, should not hurt Arsenal too much from a financial point of view.
Meanwhile, Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has backed his team to go all the way and clinch their first English Premier League title since 2004. Arsenal are top of the table at the moment, albeit only on goal difference from Leicester City, and look prime contenders for the title.
The Gunners bounced back from an awful 4-0 defeat to Southampton with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Bournemouth on Monday, a win which took them to the top of the perch, and Oxlade-Chamberlain, who had one of his more impressive games this season in that match, believes his team are heading in the right direction.
"A win was the only thing that was acceptable," Oxlade-Chamberlain told Arsenal Player after Gabriel and Mesut Ozil gave them a 2-0 victory. "We knew that and we said that to ourselves. We wanted nothing less than a win so we got the job done and now we're on to the next one.
"You need to build momentum. It's all about getting the right results and as many results as possible from here. We're in a strong position now, it's where we would like to be. There have been some hiccups along the way and I'm sure there will be a few more but we need to build on this half of the season and go into the New Year positively and in the right manner."
