Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger heaped further praise on new recruit Mohamed Elneny, hailing the rapid progress of the Egyptian midfielder after he scored a superb goal in Wednesday's Champions League defeat by Barcelona.

Elneny, whose work rate has been impressive since his January arrival from Swiss Basel, scored his maiden Arsenal goal on his first Champions League appearance with the Gunners, launching a superb curler into the top corner to make it 1-1 six minutes after the restart at the Nou Camp.

Although Barcelona eventually won 3-1 to qualify for the quarter finals with a 5-1 aggregate win, Elneny was widely acclaimed for another solid display in the heart of Arsenal's midfield.

"He arrived in January and I integrated him slowly. He has made a big impact and his individual performance [against Barcelona] and his team attitude is absolutely fantastic," Wenger said on Arsenal's official website on Friday.

"When you think that he's 23 years old, that he comes from [a club in] Switzerland and that he's not used to that intensity, I believe overall it's very positive.

"He's a very bright boy, very team-orientated and understands the game very quickly. He's very keen to learn and he has a good combination of ambition and humility. That is a very good thing."

The Egyptian international covered the most distance on the pitch, recording 12.85km during the 90 minutes, a whole kilometre more than second-placed Jordi Alba from Barcelona, who made 11.02km and was far ahead of any Arsenal player, with Hector Bellerin coming far behind with 10.86km.

Elneny also featured in two Premier League games and four FA Cup matches and is expected to start when Arsenal play Everton in Saturday's league clash.

(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)

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