Arsenal's Elneny applauded for 'incredible' 20 second cameo

Mohamed Elneny’s performance for Arsenal on Boxing Day has gathered a lot of attention on social media – and not necessarily for the right reasons.

The midfielder has gone viral over recent days after people picked up on his incredibly short run-out during the win over West Ham.

Arsenal were beating the east London side 3-1 when manager Mikel Arteta decided to bring him on for Thomas Partey.

Only, it was so late in the game that Elneny was on the field for less than 30 seconds before the game ended.

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

The video shows him coming onto the pitch and receiving applause from the crowd, running around a bit and failing to touch the ball before the final whistle blows.

The clip went viral and was uploaded to YouTube with the title “Mohamed Elneny – Incredible Midfield Cameo | Next Pirlo? | 1080p”.

People were quick to react on Twitter, with one writing: “Top performance!!!”

Another user said: “Why do managers make these subs with seconds left ? Never understood it.”

One more added: “At least he is acting as a professional team player, not rejecting his coach requests or leaving his teammates during the game.”

Real Madrid midfielder Ceballos, who previously played with Elneny during a loan spell at Arsenal, felt obliged to defend Elneny on social media after the video went viral.

“Incredible professional, incredible teammate. [Need] More players like that in football. A luxury player for the Arsenal,” he wrote.

Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah all scored during the game to give Arsenal the three points and extend their lead at the top of the table.