Thomas Partey may have dropped out of Mikel Arteta’s starting lineup for the last two matches but he understands the decision after labelling fellow midfielder Jorginho as “the best at training” in the last couple of weeks.
Having not started a league match since February, the Italy international was his metronomic best against former club Chelsea and followed up with a man-of-the-match performance in the heat of battle versus Newcastle.
The back-to-back victories have helped revive the Gunners’ ailing title challenge
and underlined the importance of squad depth. The competition for places is something that Partey welcomes.
“For me, it is something that always happened. I have always had competition, which is good for me. I enjoy it,” said Partey ahead of Sunday’s match with Brighton.
“I am really happy for him [Jorginho] because for a couple of weeks he was the best at training and then at the end you see that in the game.
“I am really happy for him and also happy that every player is ready to step in, so nobody is able to sleep. I think it is good and I hope everyone in that position will be ready to step in when they have the chance.
“The purpose of the club is to create competition and that helps the club to grow more, and also pushes us to be able to give our best in the game.
“I think it is good. Anytime you have good competition, with no problems, it is the best way to achieve what you want to achieve. This is easy because everyone is ready to give their best.”
Whoever starts in midfield at the weekend, Partey has urged his teammates to keep playing “the Arsenal way” while wary that a wounded Brighton – who come into the match off the back of a 5-1 hammering to Everton – have proved themselves to be relentless competitors this season.
“When a team has that mentality I think it’s hard to stop them,” he told Arsenal.com.
“But I believe in our qualities and I believe in every player. When you win games, you have a better chance of winning the next one because your confidence level is high, so we have to try and be ourselves and try and play the Arsenal way. Whenever we do that, we are able to beat any team.
“You can see [Brighton] play good football and their mentality is strong. They never give up. I think it will be a very difficult game because they want to keep the ball, and we want to keep the ball so we have to be good at doing that and stronger in recovering the ball and keeping it.
“Any team that likes to dominate play has their own weaknesses. You’ll have to see after the game how we will try to hurt them but we are training a lot on that. Every team that is good have their weaknesses but we will try and explore that, play as we know how to play and we’ll be able to beat them.”
This guy is a rolls-royce. As good as Jorgi has been in recent games, Partey is unplayable when he’s on it.
He’s also been present most of the season too despite our concerns.
Partey walks in the shadow of our physio all the time even all the way to Africa(Ghana) during the last Interlull.😄
Partey has been brilliant for us at times but I’m still not sure we’ll see him in red and white next year.
Meanwhile, Jorginho was a cracking winter signing in the end and I’m super excited about our recruitment in the summer.
Why do think we won’t see Partey next season?
Obvious potential answer: The Toddger, another rush of blood to his tiny brain and somewhere north of 150 million quid.
Age, susceptibility to injuries, need to make space for incoming signings, transfer market value higher than others.
He’s 29, hardly old. We’re obviously looking for more players in his position but I’m really not sure it’s to take his place, whether Rice and Caicedo come in they can both just as easily compete for Xhaka’s position as for Partey’s. As long as he’s not relied upon to play 50 games a season he’d be an absolutely fantastic option to have in midfield to turn our squad from 12 top level players to 16 or 17.
Worth keeping around but we need to be in a position to manage without him because of his form and injuries
Maybe he will fare better if he has to play less games
Surprised by how frequently I’m seeing this- in my mind he’s been the best pure central midfielder in the league this season. Last few games his form has fallen off a bit but he’s been largely available the entire year and 95% of the time has been great.
I think we need to start thinking about succession, but if we’ve a fit and moderately on-form Partey he starts every game for me.
He is right up there but he has been spent more time injured or out of form than fully fit since he arrived
If 100% fit I expect he will get plenty of games
If we go into next season depending on him it may well cost us the title
This scene but instead of Wiggum and Barney it’s Partey and Jorginho: https://youtu.be/9O2448GKdYM
Oustanding mentality. To be a player of that class but still actually admit his teammate deserved to start over him and appreciate the competition, that’s exactly the sort of mindset and personality we need at this club. Really hope he stays.