7 Myths debunked by the arrival of Thomas Partey at Arsenal

Great article by a knowledgeable arsenal fan. Seven points on point and the ones about Ozil are very true.
Arsenal club went into the tank the day Santi Carzola got injured. Hopefully TP fills his shoes and propels our club back to elite status where it belongs..

No doubt, it’s no mean achievement that Arsenal managed to capture Thomas Partey on the dot of the closing hours of the transfer window. I therefore quite I agree with you that this singular feat has in no small measures changed those negative narratives & many others on Arsenal, as a big club.
-My humble take in all this, however, is that this may come to naught, unless Arteta himself improves upon some of his seemingly weak approaches to matches, especially in those matches that involve top teams. With the signing of Thomas Partey & those other quality players earlier on brought on board, like, Gabriel, Tierney, Saliba etc Arteta should strive to return Arsenal to its traditional playing style of attacking football. Enough of his Unai style of play he eg deployed against LiverP & those other top clubs.The Aston Villa match should thus, be an eye opener to all. How Aston Villa brilliantly pummeled & demystified LiverP was a joy to watch with that their hard pressing, fast & confident playing style. Hitherto, though, some of our football experts would, against all odds tell us that to beat LiverP, you must avoid playing them an open, attacking game, as if, the LiverP players were made in heaven or another planet. As usual, the bandwagon effect influenced everyone to buy into that fallacy including Arteta & his players who held LiverP in fear & awe. Ironically, even some established pundits like our legend Ian Wright who should be in the vanguard of psyching our team up & urging them to play differently, fell flat to that opinion. Listening to Ian Wright & others during that ill fated match with LiverP where we fell by 3-1, one would think that LiverP was an invisible team, from another planet, which could never be beaten by Arsenal or any other team in an open, free & attacking football. Commending or lauding Arteta for deploying such a negative tactic, the experts & pundits alike insisted that the best approach to beating LiverP by Arsenal was by playing, the boring & irritating layback style. Some of us thought otherwise though & had the belief that Arsenal should have played that match differently. Our ‘more technically sound fans however thought that those of us in this school of thought were talking bunkum & indeed from the point of ignorance & illiteracy in football knowledge. Well, the solace to take in all this, is that the AV match has vindicated our stand. It’s more inspiring & satisfying, that it wasn’t as if AV had better quality players than Arsenal. The difference lied in their attitude & approach to the game. The AV players refused to be intimidated by the overbloated credentials of the LiverP team, they refused to inhibit any fear factor or inferioty complex, nor did they exhibit any iota of respect to the so called, ‘all conquering’ LiverP. team. Arteta should therefore learn some few tricks from the AV match & henceforth approach his matches with boldness by employing hard pressing, attractive & thrilling football against any team. The number of goals scored in league matches after all count in addition to the three points gannered in a win. The early switch off by Arsenal players eg in that Sheff United match, when they got those 2 quick goals, almost caused us that match. I believe that the early switch off by the players & Arteta himself, was more, as a result of fear factor or weak mental strength rather than any rational tactical approach. The defence & the midfield players just simply unnecessarily slowed down the pace and resorted to playing & passing the ball among themselves in the midfield & the back for the better part of the time, thus giving Sheff United the momentum to get a goal & almost the equalizer. Arteta too did not help matters, as he easily got panicked by substituting Cebalos, the only attacking minded midfielder, for Xhaka. Thereon, the defence was unnecessarily put under pressure. We were only lucky to have escaped from that match with a draw.
-My second intervention, would centre on the need for Arteta to be more professional & resourceful as the Manager of players. In the absence of any credible reasons available, as to why Arteta has shown complete disdain for some players, particularly, the trio of, Ozil, Guenze & Toreira, I may think that it borders down to ego & high handedness. The tweet exchanged between Ozil & Gueze eg, says much to this effect. The two younger ones, Toreira & Guenze still have much to prove since they still have the ambition to play for their countries. Luckily, the two are gone, at least on loan. My take in this, is that Arteta should learn to be professional in order to succeed. Ego & high handedness, should have no place in management. Those plodding him on, in this self destruct, in the name of instilling discipline at the expense of the club are not doing him or the club any favors. There are better ways to handle heady players than freezing them without any justifiable reasons. Who says some of these new players would, not in the near future revolt too, against him for high handedness? Even, if on the hand, the travails some of these players are under going happen to be scripts handed to Arteta by the management, it becomes incumbent upon him to as the coach, be circumspect in handling such issues with the view to protecting his players’ interests before the Mgt.
– The third area of my intervention is in the area of selection of players for matches. It will appear that, Arteta is fond of leaving his solid players on the bench for some of those tentative players. The end result is that the team plays below their potentials. He needs to be rational in his selections so as to get the best from his team. We would have eg, had an easy ride over Sheff United if only he started that match with the right selection. Wishing all Gunners success. Let’s Partey on.