Souness hits out at Arsenal over incident that could have seen Elneny sent off

Graeme Souness has questioned why Arsenal selected Mohamed Elneny to be a marker for a set-piece in their defeat to Burnley.

With Arsenal already reduced to ten men following the dismissal of Granit Xhaka, the Gunners could have found themselves in an even more precarious situation after an incident involving Elneny.

While preparing to defend a Burnley corner, Elneny pushed his hands into James Tarkowski's face and then went to ground himself.

Elneny was booked following the incident but was perhaps fortunate not to have been sent off.

Souness felt that it was nonsensical that a player who lacks the tactical nous to cope with such a situation was selected to defend a corner.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Souness said: 'You're setting your team up yesterday defensively. Who in his staff has thought it would be a good idea for Elneny to be a marker at a set-piece when Elneny is ignoring the ball completely and just staring at his man and pushes the guy down, he goes down pretending he's been pushed. He should have been sent off there.

'Who has looked at the situation and thought 'he could be one of our markers?'. If he does that once you don't have him anywhere near marking a player.'

Souness suggested that a player of Elneny's experience should know how to deal with the situation and if not somebody else should have taken up that position instead.

Souness said: 'That guy's 28 years old. Someone in his staff must have seen that and thought, 'not sure about that boss, let's put someone else there. Someone on his staff has to go, 'that's down to me'. Did you ever play with a player who did that? I never,'

'You learn at 15, 16 how to mark properly and if you've got half a brain it's in your head forever. Don't tell me that Elneny's not marked someone in the past at a set-piece for Arsenal an shown signs that he might not be very good.

'They could easily have gone down to nine men tonight, and in my opinion should have gone down to nine men. Someone in the coaching staff must have seen that in him and thought 'we can't have him anywhere near marking someone.'

Souness even went on to suggest that former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who left the club in 2018, could be to blame.

Wenger was the manager who signed Elneny from Basel in January 2016.

Souness said: 'That has to go back to Arsene Wenger. He signed him. Whoever signed him and worked with him for a period of time. Him or his coaches have got to say this is how you mark.'

Arsenal lost 1-0 to Burnley with captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring an own goal and his side's woeful form continuing.

Mikel Arteta's side are languishing in 15th place in the and have lost seven of their 12  Premier League games this season.