Thomas Partey has issued a statement on his Instagram, following his red card against Liverpool last night.
The Ghanaian international stepped off a plane at midday yesterday and immediately made himself available for last night’s Carabao Cup semi-final.
He came off the bench in the second period, but in the dying stages picked up his second yellow card, and thus misses the Burnley game on Sunday.
He said:
I am responsible for anything that happened and will take all the critiques. I should be more intelligent not to get in a challenge already booked but this is my personality, I like to fight for every ball.
I love this club and I love my country even though things sometimes don’t happen how I wanted, I would continue to work harder and make things right.
I came back with the mentality to make myself available for team to get to the final but it did not happen as planned. I will continue to give my all when am on the field of play because this is my life and this is what i chose to do.
I am not happy with all that happened yesterday and at the afcon but I understand only with hard work things will change so I will continue to work hard to change this .
Thanks.
The first yellow card was for absolutely nothing, but an experienced player should know better than to make that second challenge, especially given the time and the scoreline.
However, you can’t fault his commitment to come back from AFCON disappointment so quickly. It’s an unfortunate suspension as midfield remains light, but hopefully we have enough for Burnley, and then we can bolster this squad before the end of the window.
Our players seem to lack football intelligence.
And you’re not exactly a candidate for Mensa with that comment. He’s shown commitment making himself available in the first instance and apologized too. Do you want his last Rolo as well? Get behind our team and the manager. The fight is not over. UTA!
What we’re lacking is experience and time spent together gelling as a team. Half the team have arrived in the past 18 months. Partey is one of the more experienced ones obviously, but I think that sometimes puts more pressure on them to show the way, leading to rash decisions. Clearly we need reinforcements, we badly need a striker who can score and a midfielder who can create, and I think we need at least one of them in the next 10 days. We also need 5-6 players to provide quality backup and push the first team players, but that… Read more »
These things happen for God’s sake.
Zidane lost it in a world cup final in 2006!
Sometimes, it is not about intelligence or the lack of it; many things come into play.
Ghana got dumped out of AFCON in the most embarrassing fashion – by a Comoros team ranked 132nd in the world.
The dressing room would have been a war zone afterwards if the temperament of most African players is anything to go by.
To come out of that and be sent into a game his team is chasing was always going to be risky.
Actually was referring to this generalisation re: African players.
Slamming Zidane.
Almost sacreligious. I love it. Well done!
No doubt some really abject refereeing has hugely impacted us this season. Last night I lost count of how many times rotational fouling went unpunished by Liverpool players, yet the moment any of our players did anything Atkinson was itching to brandish a yellow card or blow up for a foul. There were fouls being given in favour of Liverpool when we literally won the ball, a particular free kick awarded when Odegaard clearly got the entire ball as Jota fell over that really infuriated me. Van Dijke and Robertson had their arms in the backs of Lacazette and Saka… Read more »
Different type of fouling mate….. they’re tactical……. we don’t get that yet, but it’s coming under Arteta
I didn’t understand the first yellow to Partey. Other than that, I thought Atkinson was pretty consistent (not right about everything, but consistent). He’s one of the most laissez-faire referees in the league, letting a lot go before he whistles; he tends to favour attacking players more than most referees. So, early on, when he was being bossed by Martinelli, Alexander-Arnold never got (nor deserved) a call. As for defenders having their arms on the attackers’ backs in aerial duels–seriously, do you think that is a foul? Do you actually believe that Van Dijk was winning headers against Lacazette because… Read more »
Wow, sweeping generalisation! Inference being all AFC players are inherently stupid?
Get that you’re disappointed, but that excellent statement from Partey would prove the complete opposite. Seems obvious that he knows it was a mistake but clearly born out of frustration at the situation. Don’t forget he got off a plane after his country just got knocked out of FACON and wanted to come and be with the team and do his best to get us through. Doubt many of us would be in operating at our prime in the same situation
The inference I surmised from that was “Africans like war” or “Africans are aggressive”. But a sweeping generalisation nonetheless…
Our quality players – and Partey is one of them – lack sufficient quality colleagues.
All part and parcel of a squad overhaul/rebuild. It takes more than one or two transfer windows to implement it.
In terms of the bigger picture, we clearly have a plan that is gradually coming together. Have some faith mate. We’re on the cusp of a truly great side. 👍
I don’t put anything on partey for last night we were lucky to have him back, we just looked like we were unfit
Agree with the “unfit” part of your statement.
Arteta said many of the guys hadn’t trained for a while and it showed. Even the dependable Tomi looked out of sorts.
It’s why we need a deep squad. So that we don’t rush people back from injury or illness.
I didn’t take this loss personally because I have seen enough to believe we are close to where we want to be.
Agreed with you both. He seems very late on the last challenge, maybe it’s physical, maybe mental, maybe both. But we should remember how it’s difficult for European players to bounce back after Euro. Losing for his country is not easy to swallow.
By the way, Thomas has desactivated comments on his las posts ans stories : did he received a huge amount of critisism ?
We’ve had monumental change in the last two years and now have the making of a very good side hence the noise coming out of other clubs regarding us. We all need to look two years ahead I think. Not sure if Mikel is the man to bring us back to the top but he’s done a very good job clearing out the deadwood and setting things on the right track.
Well said.
Arteta – and, come to think of it, Edu – have both swung my opinion of their suitability to their respective roles this season.
If Josh and the old man can be persuaded to cough up the necessary readies between now and August – and it is invested wisely again – then 22/23 could be a big season
I think they’ve bought into the project and are backing Edu and Mikel wherever possible.
Good man. He made a mistake and held his hands up. Fair play to him for putting himself in contention for the game last night. A lot of our players were clearly rusty. Onwards and upwards.
My Perspective here …. Beaten by a better squad that has been together for longer and in better condition. They absolutely know what they are doing and are really good at it, including the niggly fouls. Did not get hammered as in the past encounters Still in rebuild and managing learning phase hugely encouraging to see the will and drive to try Partey coming back and trying great attitude plus Tomi, ESR giving it a go when clearly not ready yet Need more depth in the squad and time to gel together, squad is very light Need to keep on… Read more »
So this is taking care of the player wellfare by the PL/FA whatever… Never should of been in the team. We clearly saw that the team was down to its bare bones, fuck all of you pundicks and people who love to talk shit
Keep your head up Thomas
Just making himself available after playing 90 minutes for his country barely 24 hrs ago, not to mention the fatigue of traveling from Cameroon to London, qualifies him for club Legend status in my opinion. He had all the reasons to feign fatigue and make himself unavailable therefore I will not fault him at all, although he should have known better than throw himself into the tackle knowing well the attitude of refs towards Arsenal. Hopefully he’ll use the one game suspension to recover well and get ready to help the team in their challenge for the much coveted top… Read more »
It wouldn’t really be “feigning” fatigue, would it?
Get us top 4, and all is forgiven Big Tom. Club need to make the signings for that to realistically happen though
Just shows the lack of depth we have at the moment. Was a bit silly but fair play to his commitment. Onwards
Our lack of midfield options put Thomas in a position he should never have been. I find it hard to blame him for trying hard.
AFCON gets quickly dismissed here but it’s a huge deal to Africa so to come straight back and play despite how he must feel mentally going out early deserves huge credit. No surprise he made a poor decision, he probably needs the time off
In a related development, Nicholas Pepé is lighting up AFCON big time… two sumptuous goals and two assists in three games!
I hope he brings this form back to the Emirates. A firing Pepe would do our top 4 quest no harm at all.
If only to make him a more attractive option in the transfer window 🙏
Could Arteta have something to do with his Arsenal form?
Just wondering.
Emerging as a star in a star studded Ivory Coast side this tournament & made Mahrez look pretty pedestrian by comparison in the Algeria match.
Not 100% sure about his longterm prospects with us but in this form would’ve much rather seen him come on for Laca last night instead of Eddie (though I’ve got nothing against Eddie).
I think we should try Pepe up top, he’s got a good eye for goal.
He needs a run of games though, not just the odd appearance here and there.
Yet again an opposing player gets away with almost everything without a booking (Fabinho) yet partey’s first challenge results in a yellow card.. I don’t want to say there is a blatant agenda against arsenal …but there is a blatant agenda against arsenal.
Been saying it for weeks. I don’t think there is an agenda, we’re just an easy team to give “harsh” decisions against.
We’re just an easy target for officials to give “harsh” decisions against. Some of the bookings/red cards we’ve gotten vs what the opposition get away with is more than just luck.
We’ve 75% more red cards than the next nearest team in 2 years. To the next nearest team, not league average! That’s not chance.
We shouldn’t be complaining about depth given the amount of first team players we have out on loan.
Last night White could have played RB if we had Mari. There was no need for Partey to rush back if we had kept AMN. Even Torreira and Guendouzi could have done a job if we weren’t so keen to let them leave on loan without replacing them properly.
I think we’re too nice in the market and yesterday we paid for that.
Massive respect to the lads who played when they shouldn’t have done really ! So obvious that we were a tired side but the attitude shown to get out on the pitch was top notch last night ! Objectively we hit the bar Laca should have scored with another & Martinelli terrorised Terence Trent Darby Alexander all night ! We didn’t deserve to win though and in fact didnt !
I wouldn’t go so far to say that there is some agenda against arsenal from referees, but it does feel like we get treated very harshly in comparison to other teams. I looked at footstats (not sure how reliable they are) and other stat sites, but according to them last season we committed the least number of fouls for that season. So far this season we are 17th apparently in most fouls committed. Other stat sites show a similar pattern where we rank very low in fouls commited and yet we have ended up with the most red cards (14)… Read more »
His statement looks so different to Xhaka’s. You can see that he really mean it.
Fair play to him. At least he takes public responsibility for his mistake, unlike our red card specialist at the club…
Great commitment to the club and I love his willingness to hold himself accountable.
Terrific member of the team who deserves support for his response. We all make mistakes!
I don’t think he needed to even make that statement.
He came on and got sent off, we were already going out. At least he made himself available when others wouldn’t have arrived from warm Africa at midday, to sit on a cold north London bench at 19.45.
Right infront of the referee. No getting away from that one. He will soon be one of only three senior players above 25yo. The best thing he can do for the team is to upskill his on pitch leadership and identify the ebb and flow of the game and what it requires, so he can guide the youngsters through the game. Instead of always trying to make up for things physically or technically. He is the centre of the team literally. The passing graphics show he distributes the ball to 6 or 7 players. If he can bring out an… Read more »