Thomas Partey joined Arsenal in the summer and he has been a major positive addition to their team in this campaign.
Arsenal has had the pleasure of enjoying the talents of great defensive midfielders in the past.
However, since Gilberto Silva and Patrick Vieira left the club, they have struggled to find outstanding players in that position.
The club went all out in the summer and triggered the release clause of Partey at Atletico Madrid.
The Ghanaian has struggled to stay fit consistently as he adapts to his new team, but when he has played for the Gunners, he has shown his class.
Gilberto reckons that he is the player that this Arsenal team has missed all along and claims that he makes Granit Xhaka better.
He also says Arsenal’s defence plays with more confidence when the midfielder is in front of them.
Silva told Astro SuperSport via Sun Sports: “I guess so. In my opinion, I agree with you.
“He’s a good player. He’s the type of player Arsenal were missing, I’ve spoken a couple of times about it.
“They have good players in the [central midfield] position but not to sit and give Arsenal the stability they have.
“Look at the game [against Spurs] it was great to see how he managed his game, how he managed that position, helping.
“You know what is very important about this particular position? This is a very particular position because not every time you get the credit you deserve.
“That’s okay, it’s fine, because you have to understand that. But this guy, when he understands the position like Partey, look at his game: he made the others a lot better.
“He makes Xhaka look better in the game, he made the defenders look a lot better and comfortable when the ball was against them.”
The Gunners are still a long way from a European place this season. If he can stay fit, then he could yet fire them into a top six spot.
Partey is a very fine central midfielder who is only now reaching full match fitness after a series of niggling , rather than serious injuries.In my opinion ,we need to upgrade the midfield area if we are to challenge for a top four position next season.Ceballos will go back to RM, and from what I have seen neither AMN nor Willock have the skills needed at the highest level.Xhaka continues to polarize opinion, but the undeniable fact is his lack of pace is a major drawback in his ability to drive forward on the counter attack.Torreria and Guendousi seem to be surplus to the Managers requirements and it remains to be seen if we can extend the loan for Odegaard.Elneny, is what he is,a limited back up player.Faced with the uncertainties surrounding the make up of our midfield, it seems to me we need at least two quality players to assist Partey and ESR who is blossoming into a gem of a player.It will be very interesting to see how events unfold as far as the midfield sector is concerned in the months ahead,
Silver,no doubt.Thomas’ball reception and turns is quite fanciable.Arsenal will improve.Rem the ff:Odega,Rowe,Buka,Kieran,Ced including Nico among other crop of players.
Partey is good & will do better, later as he keep understanding the league. But he needs 2 stay fit 2 do that.
I think with the current team, we will need to add pacy wingers to always keep the opponent busy from coming out of their defense so that our middlefielders can have more of the ball as that will also give the strikers space to score more goals
I have only seen inklings of the Partey I witnessed play at Athletico…obviously his nagging injuries have curtailed his ability to show us the real Thomas, which makes it difficult to heap Vieira-like praise on him at this juncture…based on what I’ve seen this year I’m not sure if he could handle being the sole deep-lying midfielder if we were to change tactics, which is my hope…I guess a lot will depend on our base formation moving forward, as I can only hope it won’t be the defensively-minded 4-2-3-1 we’ve been peddling for the better part of this season…regardless, I’ve always found him to be a top-notch player, bordering on world class, and I will keep my fingers-crossed that injuries won’t derail the incredibly promising career of another Arsenal midfielder