After a long summer of hunting for a midfielder, Arsenal completed the signing of Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid by activating his release clause of £45 million on the 5th October 2020, Transfer Deadline Day. The signing was met with jubilation from fans who strongly anticipated the arrival of the Ghanaian at the Emirates to hopefully be the heart beat of the gunners’ midfield in the face of a rather bleak situation that Mikel Arteta’s Reds had ahead of them. Whilst Partey has been a crucial asset within the Arsenal puzzle, his time in North London has been far from plain sailing, plagued with injuries and adversity. This ultimately has consistently raised the question that whilst we all acknowledge the value Thomas Partey has to offer, does his unavailability present a larger burden to Arsenal rather than an asset. It seems the club have come to that uncomfortable conclusion, with journalist Ryan Taylor reporting last week that the club will sell the midfielder in the summer transfer window after growing frustrations with Partey’s injury record.
When available for selection, Thomas Partey is often the glue of the Arsenal team. He covers grounds quickly and has a fantastic work rate; combining this with the conviction in which he makes tackles or presses in a central position means he is extremely influential when his team is without the ball. Yet on the ball, Partey excels in midfield by carrying the balls from the first third into more advanced areas, as well as having the capability of breaking lines with his long passing or dribbling. During his time at the Emirates Thomas has been declared as ‘world class’, compared to the likes of Rodri, Casemiro and Declan Rice. When missing from the team, Partey’s absence has always been felt deeply, leaving an irreplaceable gap in midfield until the arrival of new Arsenal star, Declan Rice in the most recent summer window. It seems that many Arsenal fans would place some of the clubs shortfalls over the last couple years such as their most recent unsuccessful title race last year with Manchester City, and their painful top four race the year before with bitter rivals Tottenham, on the unavailability of Thomas Partey because of the evident reliance on his midfield presence and ability to connect the front and backlines. Mikel Arteta has opened up on the situation, describing the injury record of Thomas Partey as a ‘big concern’.
At Atletico Madrid, Thomas Partey only missed 7 fixtures, with his fitness and availability being crucial in him being such a consistently reliable asset in Diego Simeone’s setup, yet at Arsenal the Ghanaian has missed over 50 games. The obvious reason to point towards would be the increased intensity of the Premier League compared to other European Leagues, although perhaps Arsenal have some responsibility to claim in this tiresome issue. At Atletico Madrid, Simeone’s 4-4-2 formation meant Partey’s off the ball work didn’t require as much athleticism, and instead focused more on using Partey’s footballing intelligence. Furthermore he had the likes of Rodri and Saul Niguez to share the midfield duties with, therefore the work wasn’t as physically demanding. However at Arsenal he has played mainly as a lone pivot being forced and pushed into covering far more ground over longer periods of a game, way more frequently than in Spain.
With Thomas Partey’s unreliability it is likely the club will begin to look to move on from the 30 year old this summer, assessing a variety of replacements including Martin Zubimendi of Real Sociedad and Amadou Onana of Everton as rumoured targ