John Barnes claims that the signing of Thomas Partey will provide the right balance for the Arsenal side.
Partey has just joined the Gunners and he has started the club’s last two games.
He was in fine form in his first match against Rapid Wien as the Gunners came from a goal down to beat the Austrians.
However, he was on the losing side against Leicester City at the weekend, but Barnes believes that he will provide balance for the team and help Mikel Arteta to set up his team nicely.
He claimed that the Ghanaian will be able to help the team with his ability to shield the defence as well to transition from defence to attack.
“Currently, Arsenal are a lot stronger in defence than they were last season,” Barnes said as quoted by Standard Sports.
“The signing of Thomas Partey is a big factor in that as they look to find the balance of the team and his role of shielding the back four and the transition of defence into attack.
“Even though they haven’t scored many goals this season, it doesn’t mean that the team has weak attacking players.
“The reason they aren’t scoring many goals is because it’s a strange season with everything that is going on. You look at Liverpool losing 7-2 to Aston Villa and Leicester beating Arsenal 0-1, I don’t really take much consideration into what is happening on the pitch at this moment in time.
“Arsenal have a good structured process under Mikel Arteta now and look a much better team than previously in the last two to three seasons, they aren’t too far off the top four currently so I think they will be fine this season.”
Partey comes with a big reputation and although Arteta has claimed that he will be eased into life at the club, the fans cannot wait for him to show those qualities that he displayed when he played for Atletico.
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