Arsenal have hardly been lucky with signings in the last few years. Kieran Tierney hardly kicked a ball for year after joining from Celtic, Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares likewise went at least a year on the treatment table if not more after being signed y Arteta, and now we have the curious case of Thomas Partey.
The 27 year-old arrived from Atletico Madrid as our big signing of the summer, where he had played three injury free years at the Spanish giants playing an average of 46 games per season. Then he arrived at the Emirates.
In his very first League start for the Gunners he was taken off with a thigh injury after playing half the match and he wasn’t seen again for a whole month, when he was judged ready to start against Tottenham in the North London Derby. Sadly he only managed to play the first 45 minutes again and, after being partly guilty for the Spuds first goal, suffered another thigh injury.
Fast forward another six weeks, and Partey was gradually re-introduced and it was only last weekend that he played the whole 90 minutes in the draw with Man United, and managed over an hour against Wolves in midweek.
But today, it looks like our star signing has succumbed to yet another problem in today’s defeat at Aston Villa, and it is another muscle problem. “He had a muscular injury so we had to take him off,” Arteta told Arsenal.com. ‘He could not carry on playing.
“I don’t know [how bad it is],” he added.
“We will see the extent of the injury. He wasn’t feeling well enough to continue playing so we had to take him off.”
I am starting to feel resigned to the fact that he won’t be really fit enough to make a difference to us until next season. That seems to be Arsenal Modus Operandi with new signings nowadays…