Thomas Partey was the only Arsenal player to start in both wins over Wimbledon and Burnley this week, and his participation is claimed to have been at his request.
The Ghanaian midfielder has had issues with injuries since landing in north London from Atletico Madrid 12 months ago, but has earned his place amongst our key core of players when available.
With Tottenham coming up this weekend, you could have questioned why such a player would have been starting in both matches when his inclusion may not have been deemed necessarily against our lower-league opposition, but it turns out that it was the player himself who requested to feature.
Charles Watts told his YouTube followers: “From what I understand as well, having spoken to someone close to Thomas Partey, he actually asked that he wanted to play in that game as well.
“Because he was in the same opinion, that he needed to get more fitness, to get his fitness level up ahead of what is going to be such a demanding physical game against Tottenham on Sunday.”
A number of our players still appear to be struggling to get to full strength this term, with some questions being pointed at the training methods at London Colney, but time will tell whether Partey will pay the price for his extended playing time this weekend when we take on Tottenham.
Patrick
There’s nothing wrong with the training at London colony. Folks forget we started the season with a covid outbreak. Thomas got injured in a friendly against Chelsea in preseason. He was cramping during the Burnley game hence his early substitution.
Only made sense he’d play some minutes in the Carabao cup to build his fitness as he’s clearly not a 100% yet.
Great of Partey to request for playing time to up his match fitness levels, shows his commitment to the cause. We need all players to be like him.
👍👍
First time that I have heard about training methods being questioned this season.
I questioned his selection, but it’s all turned out OK for Sunday’s game.
Well done TP, admire your commitment.