Time to Partey – The good and bad of Arsenal’s transfer window

It’s Partey Time! by Konstantin Mitov

Better late than never, am I right you beautiful Arsenal people! I’m so happy I would’ve popped a beer if I had one in my fridge… This is a massive signing for multiple reasons.

First off, what a welcome sight for our midfield. We finally have a player with pace and power who can help us break opposition play and control the central area of the pitch, something with which we have heavily struggled.

Secondly, he’s been schooled by Simeone, probably one of the best managers in the world when it comes to grinding out a result, and this will be vitally important. We’ve been a lot more pragmatic in the last 10 months. We’ve abandoned the “Arsenal way” for the “winning” way and this will be so until Arteta gets the players he wants.

Finally, what a massive lift for fans and players as well. We know our midfield isn’t good enough and so does Arteta and the players. This is a huge lift for everybody and marks a statement of intent. We want to return to the top. It won’t be an easy journey, but we will do what it takes and sacrifice some of the flashiness of our play to get there.

It’s interesting what this does to our formation? Partey introduction allows us to pair him with Xhaka or Elneny and move Ceballos further up the pitch If we want to move to a 4-3-3. Or we can stick with the 3 at the back and have Partey and Ceballos in the middle, which is much, much better than Xhaka and Elneny, although I like what Mo has done so far.

This deal salvages the transfer window honestly. I think Gabriel was a steal. He’s been a much-needed piece in our defence. Thomas now adds a new dimension to our midfield which we didn’t have before.

If Pepe can summon his performance against Sheffield more often, we’re on to something. I enjoyed Auba in the middle with Pepe and Willian on the flanks. It gave us the change we needed to open Sheffield up and we had players who could take opponents on 1-on-1.

We do not have a midfield like City which can dominate the ball, but we have pace in our attack, and we should use it. Liverpool did it before they bought Fabinho, Keita and so on. They literally used to leap the ball to the front 3 and they did the rest. We might have learned something from them because we also do it.

Our next game is away to Man City and it might come too soon to start Partey, but it just feels so much better to know he’s here. They have showed some flaws. If we can be tight at the back, anything can happen.

This is a crazy, crazy season. I was surprised to see Leicester beaten 3:0 at home to West Ham, but this was peanuts compared to United getting spanked 6-1 by them lot, and then for the real shocker, Villa put Liverpool to the sword with 7 goals!

Football is different without fans. It will be a whacky season, but if we get ourselves to the top 4 that will accelerate us so much!

We sadly didn’t manage to offload all the deadwood. Guendouzi who had so much promise went to Hertha Berlin. Raw talent doesn’t count unless you follow the orders under Arteta and he’ll be loaned this season, but you hardly see him coming back with Mikel at the helm.

We also loaned Torreira to Atletico Madrid. Thanks for that goal against Tottenham! Otherwise it hasn’t really worked out. He didn’t like England, we expected more, and so another player is at least for this season off the wage bill.

Speaking of it, it’s just sad Ozil will leach 18 million from the club to not play maybe even a single minute all season. Who knows really, but I highly doubt Arteta will go soft on him.

Unfortunately, Leverkusen failed to agree terms with Kolasinac, and we’re stuck with another high earner who’s not good enough.

Then there are the players whose contracts run out next year like Mustafi, Sokratis who we also failed to offload and of course Mesut. But think of it like this. Next season if we make the top 4 we’ll have more money to spend and 3 unneeded players on high wages out the door.

Finally I’d like to thank Arteta for sticking his neck out and trying to be transparent. The club could’ve backed him more as we still need a creative player, but considering we didn’t sell anyone past Martinez and knowing Kroenke, Partey is a gift to us all and I can’t wait to see him put on the red and white shirt!

Hopefully, you are excited as much as I am! Until next time, see you in the comments!

Konstantin