As many had hoped, Arsenal got off to a favourable start against Wolves on Saturday afternoon. It was a terrific start to the 2024–25 season with a 2-0 victory, with Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka assisting each other for the goals.
There were some positives to that victory, but there were also some concerns. One area of worry was Thomas Partey’s performance in the second half. The Ghana international was a bright spark in the first 45 minutes, and his effect was clear; he was all over Arsenal’s engine room, reminding us what a good 6 he is.
Unfortunately, his levels appear to have fallen during the second half. To be honest, he was slow and prone to making mistakes in the middle of the park, like we saw in the preseason versus Liverpool. This led to Arsenal losing their dominance and Wolves gaining confidence, which could have cost the North Londoners the game.
Mikel Arteta was asked about Partey’s performance after the game and he said: “Yeah well we had certain problems, especially in the second half with certain giveaways. It’s part of the game as well, and things that we can do better to be more consistent, and have more security, more purpose and dominate the game better. We will get better.”
Thomas Partey is a quality midfielder, as evidenced by his first-half performance, but he definitely no longer has the energy to play the full 90 minutes. It’s about time that Arsenal’s technical bench moved on from him.
The Gunners need the Mikel Merino swoop completed as soon as possible; get him on board, into the system, and see him take over as the LCM while Martin Odegaard serves as the RCM and Declan Rice as the 6.
Although Partey is a talented player, his reliability is questionable.
Going forward, should Arteta either introduce him to see-off games or, if given the chance to start, withdraw him early to prevent fatigue from lowering his performance.
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Partey had some serious lapses in concentration but so did Saliba and Timber. Hopefully it’s just the long break from football that has led to this drop in sharpness. I’d dread to see the same issues against Aston Villa.
It reminded me of when partey came back from injury two seasons ago. Many players were poor at that time, but partey did have some uncharacteristic lapses even then (21/22 season). Hopefully that’s more to do with match fitness that can be rebuilt, rather than a lasting issue. If we sign merino, I suspect he’ll go straight into the team tbh, so we won’t find out about partey until later in the season
Partey has had these issues for a while now. It seems like he has lost something physically. This is why the Merino signing is important. We need more legs in midfield; more physicality and Merino gives us that in spades. A good number 6 should be secure with the ball- this is why moving Rice back to the six could be our best option. He hardly loses the ball. The more adventurous players can play further forward where losing the ball is not as detrimental.
I feel like its too early to start rating our players now. Lets be alitle patient and give them a room for improvements since the season has just started.
Not quite ready to give up on partey just yet – possibly he’s a bit short of match fitness still, but it’s definitely possible he’s just about over the hill.
I don’t know Merino’s game that well, but from what I’ve seen he’s a bit of a mix of xhaka and rice. My concern is that we haven’t played well with rice as the 6 previously, and I’m not convinced Merino would be the answer for making that setup with. Rice is a safe passer, but sometimes that’s not enough. There was one passage of play in the first half where partey controlled a very difficult pass and carried it forwards which ended up with a chance, where I suspect rice would more often have taken a heavy touch and lost it – that showed the difference imo. Partey is just technically much better and also much better at finding ways to wriggle out of difficult situations, usually.
I suspect a rice-merino partnership won’t work for some games, and we’ll have to turn to either partey or jorginho at some point in the season. Might be wrong – merino does show sparks of creativity and quick thinking, which could well be exactly what’s needed.
Another alternative is timber at 6, who others have mentioned before – his close control is excellent and he does have a lot of the qualities needed for that role.
Davi there are many ways of getting additional passers/ball carriers close to Rice at the 6. Arteta partially addressed this in the second half of last season by altering the way Odegaard plays. Odegaard now drops deeper in possession to help with build-up.
Zinchenko ,who is a touch heavy player, is the other option.When he’s at LB,he tucks into midfield as the pivot alongside Rice,but we know his deficiencies. Calafiori(at LB or CB) and Timber(LB/RB) will help us as well.
Yesterday we also saw Saliba carry the ball higher up the pitch,wriggling his way past defenders. He can do that. In such an instance,Rice who has played at CB can drop back to cover the space he leaves in defence.
I personally believe Rice’s best position is the 6 protecting the back four. From what we’ve heard from him,that’s the role he was signed for.
Whatever deficiencies he has in ball progression are addressed by Merino,Calafiori,Timber,Zinchenko,Odegaard and Saliba even without Partey/Jorginho.But it’s good to have the options of Partey/Jorginho at the 6 too. We now genuinely multiple ways of setting up tactically.
Yes, that’s a great argument, I think that explains why players like calafiori were signed and you may well be right – I mean that genuinely – I just haven’t seen it manifest yet. I probably am being a bit biased by what I’ve seen work for us in the past and a little close-minded to the possibilities other players can bring.
The one area I think partey is/was significantly better in an important way is the ability to take a difficult (sometimes fired at him) pass under pressure in front of the defence and not only keep possession, but also find a way to get us into an attacking situation – of the ones who play in that general area of the field, I think only timber and odegaard (who we don’t really want to see playing deep too often if we can help it) have comparable close control abilities to partey. Maybe we can avoid getting into so many testing situations – jorginho and rice aren’t quite so good in that way, but rarely get caught out for example, and if partey is on the decline anyway, maybe that’s a moot point. It does make me think timber might be the best option for the 6 role, however, as that’s where those close control skills are most valuable imo.
Btw, I swear I’ve seen contradictory statements from/about rice playing the 6 role. I had thought there’d been statements previously about him wanting to or training to play further forwards and contribute in both boxes?
Partey will get better with time because he’s a player who you cannot overload with training because of the nature of his muscles. One step at a time.
We need him together with Merino as he knows how to control the pace of the game and defending by means of possession.
Party has revived this season. There were a few mistakes, which were also made by other players like Saliba’s blind pass in the box that almost caused us problems, Timber’s giveaway that almost made us pushed towards the ending time, Kai’ failure to execute a good finish for a good pass, Martinell’s selfiness when Rice a good space to score.
I believe Partey has made a good start, though he’s very prone to injuries. He needs a backup like Merino
Kai also gave the ball away cheaply trying to dribble out in the first half which led to their big chance.
I thought martinelli was right to take the shot you mentioned. Almost scored from close in, and I don’t think the pass to rice was as straightforward as it appeared as there was a player running back
Great first half, poor second half. I’m thinking Rice will take Partey’s 6 role when Marino arrives with Marino in the 8 role.
Bye Thomas, I had predicted that you’d be on an Emirates plane to Saudi at about 10:35 August 30 but with the pending announcement of Merino you may be on an earlier flight. Good luck and make sure they have competent physios just in case you don’t return to a virtually injury free career after leaving us.
It’s the earliest of early days yet. I think you have to give players a little more of a chance to show what they can do (or can’t) before condemning them to the football wilderness.
Party didn’t have a good game that’s for sure, but it’s not as though every other Arsenal player was on the very top of their form against Wolves either.
I don’t really see Party leaving in this window though. Arsenal has enough problems trying to sell the players already on their exit list without adding to it. If a generous offer did arrive, they’d obviously take it but the same could be said about the likes of Eddie, Kiwior, Ramsdale and Nelson. We keep waiting and hoping and waiting and hoping, don’t we.
The next outing against Villa away will be Arsenal’s first “proper” test of the season so it will be interesting to see what changes Arteta makes and, of course, if they’re successful on the pitch.
I hope you’re right. I think the decision on Partey was made many months ago and with MA statements in the article above, combined with Merino’s announcement apparently coming soon and the fact (pointed out by JA previously) that there haven’t been any rumours or speculation that he is leaving leads me to believe he is gone. Now it’s time to kick some Villan butt. 😂
Well, we’ll see. It would certainly be good if Arsenal could actually sell two players in a transfer window of ten weeks or so, but we mustn’t get too ahead of ourselves.
A win against Villa really should get things moving.
We have won all the games where Rice has operated as 8. The reverse is not true when he has operated as 6.
I don’t believe 100% that Merino will resolve our midfield issues. The real plan was to get a 6 of Partey’s profile to finally let Rice operate as 8.
Let’s see how it works out. I just hope Arteta has done his homework well.
This is how I see it – I think zubimendi was the planned signing and we couldn’t find a suitable alternative when he wasn’t interested – however Onyango does make good points. Hopefully arteta will find another way of playing that addresses the issues with rice playing at 6 (if that’s what ends up happening – which seems likely if merino signs)
Let him give partey more time ,i think he will style up
For a long time Partey has tended to flag and make mistakes in the second half of games.
However, when fully fit he is still one of the best in his position. I think it would be a mistake to sell him during this transfer window.
2 things contributed to our collapse in the 2022/2023 season
-Saliba injury
-Partey’s drop in form
Maybe Saliba’s absence affected Party’s performances is what I don’t know.
Ever since that period, we have not enjoyed the guy in full over a long period.
I wish he can rediscover his mojo and strength, we WILL win the league.
Jesus’ post injury form was also very poor and arteta insisted on playing him regardless.
While partey did drop, so did a few others – I definitely wouldn’t put it down to just those two factors.
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