For the uninitiated, watching Thomas Partey struggle in a Black Stars shirt against Madagascar could have been one of the proverbial bad days at the office for the elite defensive midfielder.
Singling out Partey is totally unfair considering the Black Stars’ general play was flat out poor and only Mohammed Kudus and Ernest Nuamah excelled in the dull goalless draw.
However, for the initiated, many of them Ghanaian football fans, this was just another game Partey has failed to live up to his high level of play when competing for the Black Stars.
While players like Partey are gifts there is also a cursed element that comes with the gift in the form of heightened expectations and not even a string of fine performances at the 2022 FIFA World Cup proved worthy enough in the eyes of Ghanaian football fans.
In the same breath, Partey’s brilliant play underpinned Arsenal’s remarkable title charge in the just ended season as his gifts powered Mikel Arteta’s side to a shock lengthy occupation atop the EPL standings.
On the flip side, the “curse” side to Partey’s importance showed up when injuries robbed Partey of availability in Arsenal games earlier on in the 2022-2023 season including the Gunners 1-3 loss to Man United where Antony scored on his debut.
The absence of Partey highlighted his importance to everything Arsenal did well but in equal measure highlighted the need to replace him to avoid the sudden drop off in quality production in his absence. (Click highlighted text to read full report)
It should be noted that this isn’t a peculiar issue affecting just Arsenal since Manchester United is in this fix as Casemiro’s absence for disciplinary or health reasons caused many problems for the Red Devils. Getting a potential starter in his stead or a backup option should be a top priority just as much as getting a target man this offseason.
Circa to early March and there was a heated debate about who the best defensive midfielder was between Manchester United’s Casemiro, Manchester City’s Rodri and Partey. At this point, Arsenal held a two point lead over second placed Man City with the Gunners also having a game in hand to play.
A month later, Arsenal’s lead had evaporated just around the same time Partey’s form had cratered to the point he had lost his place in the starting unit. January signing Jorginho was mainly brought in as Partey’s backup and he stepped into the starting role but his solid play wasn’t enough to get Arsenal’s title chase back on track.
In an earlier piece, signing Jorginho as a Partey insurance package was a big letdown considering Arsenal’s best title winning chance in years warranted a splashy signing like Declan Rice, Moises Caicedo or Joao Palhinha to get them over the edge. Moving away from overly relying on Partey considering his extensive injury history, is a smart and necessary move by Arsenal. (Click highlighted text to read full report)
As such, it wasn’t a huge surprise transfer guru Fabrizio Romano reported there are “concrete plans” to move off Partey. (Click highlighted text to read full report)
However, the Emirates Stadium owners are going about it the wrong way as they did in January with the Jorginho signing. In fact, Arsenal have gone about this move so wrongly to the point that the Gunners are missing out on copying the winning formula of the most successful team in the EPL over the past four seasons.
Manchester City is in rarefied air after winning the treble to join cross town rival Man United as the only English teams to accomplish this feat. En route to excelling in all facets of the game, Man City doubled down on the things they do so well.
In defensive midfield, the Sky Blues had the brilliant veteran Fernandinho but went ahead to add Rodri to the roster and did same with its defence by bringing in Aymeric Laporte, Nathan Ake and recently Manuel Akanji to a back line that had Reuben Dias, Eric Garcia and John Stones on it.
In attacking midfield, there was Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan but Pep Guardiola got Bernardo Silva added to his team.One would think that a midfield with this reputution would be the envy of all but Pep went ahead to add Kalvin Philips to the roster.
The benefits showed in Man City’s title winning campaign in the 2022-2023 season as De Bruyne, Rodri, Gundogan and Silva all had undulating forms this season as expected but had their respective production shine through when the others tailed off.
Casemiro and Partey starred early last season ahead of Rodri but the Spaniard had a barnstorming second half of the campaign to finish on a blistering note. His strong finish to the season was encapsulated by hitting the winning strike to seal the Champions League title for City
It is most disappointing from an Arsenal standpoint since two key players (Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus) and head coach Arteta come from the Man City block. Arsenal has tackled this issue in defence and in attack and some parts of its midfield but in the defensive midfield position it is still a concern especially in light of Granit Xhaka’s imminent departure for the Bundesliga.
Extensive reports have linked Arsenal transitioning Emile Smith-Rowe into the Xhaka role and have him play a bit deeper in midfield than his usual spot up field.
Rather than sell Partey, Arsenal should keep him around and add to that department by getting one of Declan Rice or Moises Caicedo this offseason.
This suggestion comes with serious financial consequences since Partey holds a pricey wage and Caicedo and Rice have $115 million price tags slapped on them.
On the other hand, Arsenal can offset this huge cost of having Partey and Rice or Caicedo on the team by selling the highly valuable Smith-Rowe and passing on prolonging Reiss Nelson’s stay at the Emirates.
A Smith-Rowe sale looks set to cover little over half of the asking price for Rice and Caicedo and in turn makes a move for any of the highly rated midfielders a bargain.
While Thomas Partey, Jorginho, Mohammed Elneny fall outside the timeline of a very young Arsenal team as 30 something year olds, moving off the former Atletico Madrid player this offseason is some way off what Man City would typically do.