Arsenal have had incredibly bad luck with our signings over the last few years. Pablo Mari, Cedric Soares and Kieran Tierney arrived with high hopes but all three ended up not being able to join the team for about a year with injury problems keeping them out of training.
Now this summer we finally got Thomas Partey on deadline day, but it is now January and we have only seen him start two games for us, with the dreaded injury curse striking twice already.
But now Mikel Arteta is hopeful that Partey is close to recovery, and there is every chance we could see him in our next League game, if not in next week’s FA Cup game against Newcastle. Arteta said: “Well, he hasn’t trained fully with us, but he has done most parts of training in the last few days. He’s feeling good and we will assess him if he needs another two or three sessions to see if he’s 100 per cent available to play.”
The Boss was then asked if would be a boost to have him in the team and he would be “like a new signing” considering he has hardly played for us so far. “Absolutely.” Arteta said. “We’re in January and I think he’s played two and a half games! He was our main signing, so we’ve been missing him. He brings something different to the team and it’s a player with an enormous talent, but he’s also someone that can transform the team in the way we want. If we can have him and keep him healthy, he will contribute in a really positive way.”
In the little that we have seen Partey play he was certainly impressive, so it has been a massive blow to Arteta to not have him available. Let us all hope that he gets fit very quickly and slots nicely into our ever-improving side.
One more “enormous talent” in Arsenal’s midfield will certainly help for the second half of the season…
2021 is Partey time!
Indeed Reggie and with great respect I will say a little more than you chose to do. Perhaps you have not the spare time I have today!
Partey is widely accepted as being a top, top quality player and will make a huge difference once fully fit and playing as regular choice. Had he not been missing I believe we may well have had another 4- 6 points than we have which would have made a big difference to our chances of Europa qualification this season.
As things stand we have only a slim chance of top six or seven and virtually no chance of top four- though I know most will find that too pessimistic a view. I just think it is realism, given our thin (in quality) squad versus those those currently in top eight and esp the likely top four , which will be Liverpool, City, Man Utd and either Leicester or Spurs ,imo. Probably Villa or Chelsea next.
We have , right now, just 8 proven top players, most of whom are young or youngish and will improve further. Partey, Tierney, Gabriel, Martinelli, Saka, Leno, plus Auba and Laca when on form.
Besides those we have other promising young players but not yet proven top class , like ESR, AMN, Nelson, Balogun and a few other younger ones, plus half decent but not top class defenders who will do until we can get better quality, meaning Holding and Mari. Pretty well everyone else is surplus to what we need IMO and we need to move them out. I include such as Bellerin, Xhaka, Elneny, Pepe and Willlian in that list. Ceballos will probably return to Real Madrid next summer and then on somewhere else but not here.
REALISTICALLY, BY COMPARISON TO OUR RIVALS, WE ARE NO BETTER THAN THE NINTH BEST SQUAD AND THAT IS BEING GENEROUS TO US.
I predict our final position will be most probably 9th and no lower than 12th. A top six finish will be possible but very slim around 3 -5% and a top four, less than 1%.I am if nothing else, a realist!
Opinions Jon but while i respect yours, i honestly think our squad is top four material with the right selections and guidance. The fact we went 7 weeks dropping off a cliff has scewed everyones perceptions. Our players are more than capable of doing what utd, Spuds, Leicester and Chelsea are. I cant accept we are as bad as we are at the moment in the league, this squad has holes but it is nowhere near as bad as made out. The talent is there, it needs bringing out.