Egypt's Mohamed Elneny will be hoping to make his Arsenal debut in Sunday's London derby against ailing champions Chelsea in a fixture in which fellow Egyptian player Mohamed Salah made his mark little less than two years ago.

Salah, now at Italian side AS Roma, came off the bench to put the icing on the cake with a fine goal in Chelsea's historic 6-0 drubbing of Arsenal to spoil Arsene Wenger's 1,000 match in charge of the Gunners in March 2014.

Elneny, who was Salah's teammate at Swiss side Basel, sealed a dream January move to Arsenal and made the team's squad for last week's 0-0 draw with Stoke City, although he was kept on the bench.

"Every player would be so proud to play for Arsenal, if they were Egyptian or not Egyptian," Elneny told Arsenal player.

"I am very keen to work hard in the Premier League - that’s for my own reputation and Egypt’s reputation, and to show everyone that Egyptian players are capable of playing very well in the Premier League."

Wenger gave little indication of whether he intends to deploy Elneny against Chelsea but, given his injury crisis in midfield, the 23-year-old could be given some time even if he starts on the bench as expected.

"I kept Elneny on the bench to give him a good look [of the game] and how tough it is in England," the French coach said after the draw with Stoke.

"Look, he is a positive boy, 23-years-old, very intelligent player as well, and he would have loved that."

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