Thomas Partey is a doubt for Arsenal’s clash with Manchester United on Sunday after the Ghana Football Association ruled the player out of next week’s AFCON qualifier with the Central African Republic.
The Black Stars, managed by former Brighton and Newcastle boss Chris Hughton, are currently top of Group E but need a win to make sure of qualification to the tournament proper which is being hosted by Ivory Coast in January.
In a statement released on Friday, Ghana said Partey had “sustained a groin injury during training on Thursday, August 31, 2023. He is currently unavailable as Club Doctors predict he’s likely to be out for a couple of weeks.”
While any injury to Partey is bad news for the Gunners, the fact the timeline for recovery is as short as two weeks is a bonus.
We’ll have to hope the situation doesn’t snowball, especially with the transfer window closed and Mikel Arteta already opting to deploy the 30-year-old as cover at right-back while we come to terms with the injury to Jurrien Timber.
In the short-term, Arsenal can lean on Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ben White and Jakub Kiwior to cover the full-back positions while in the centre of midfield, Declan Rice and Jorginho are the main options.
At this point it’s just frustrating. The moments we need him the most for, he’s injured.
Everyone says we should’ve sold him but how do you replace him?
I don’t actually think it’s about replacing Partey, it’s finding another way to play. And with Dec as the 6 I think we are moving away from him. It’s almost like when he’s good, he’s too good. We rely on his for so much that if he drops in performance or gets injured, we can’t cope.
Blue sky thinking, we’ll probably play Ben White at RB and Gabriel will come back in.
And it’s an international break now which means TP will have time to recover.
With Rice, who brushed him aside couple of times in the West Ham game and outplayed him
Let the man be injured for two weeks. Hopefully it’s not longer. There so much pressure on him to stay fit. What we really should be focusing on is the other players to stepping up!
Just a thought but maybe constantly trying to shoehorn a 30yo central midfielder into right back has had injury repercussions.
RB requires different movements and no doubt he’s been training like that all month.
I get this as we have seen what happened to Zinchenko and Timber. But how professional medical staff could not think of this? Also, Partey was injured quite often even in his usual position.
He wasn’t shoehorned into fullback in past seasons but kept getting injured just when we needed him. It’s time to look at the player and not the manager.
Timber also played almost his entire carrer in the middle of, or on the right side of the pitch. (not to mention the difference in tempo if you play against City or FC Volendam)
I’m not saying these injuries were obvious/unavoidable consequences (as I’m not a physican) but they are stange coincidentes in my view.
Agreed. Although a lot we sweep this as irrelevant. But sport physics and body mechanics dictate otherwise. Partey seasonal injuries usually comes around mid season towards December e.t.c perhaps we’ve burned the tires so early by drifting too much.
Did you become an arsenal fan in 2023 ? U may have missed partey getting injured from midfield position every season then.
Jorghino to step up
Or Rice in TP5 position and white-Saliba Gabriel and zinny as back four
Into RB?
Without wanting to be rude, I think this is a huge stretch. Partey has an awful injury record that long predates his move in position, missing an astonishing 30% of premier league games since his arrival. As much as we don’t like him playing at RB, this has nothing to do with that.
Not only that but he played RB at Atletico quite a bit.
He played 33 PL games last season.
This sucks real bad.
The timings of Partey’s injuries is really frustrating.
How in a champions League season did we end up this thin in defense and arguably midfield?
What are you talking about? How much cover do we need?? You can’t carry a team with 8 defenders and 10 midfielders. Our starting 11 is still amazing even with these injuries.
It’s taken just three games for him to receive his first injury of the season.
To be honest, it is a blessing in disguise as we can have two natural defenders in either White or Tomiyasu playing at right back which gives us more solidity.
I would much rather see TP in midfield when he returns.
Gabriel can come into the team, with White going to RB. Rice can play 6 without Partey coming in to help.
Heard it was not 2 weeks. More 3 to 4 months. Injured on Thursday on training. Our defense is light even without Partey playing at right back as we have injury prone (Zinchencko and Tommy). No wonder we kept Cedric (even if no-one wanted him). This reeeeaaaaaallly sucks. So disappointing.
Why are we hearing this from the Ghana national team?
Because Arsenal medical team can never get the timings of injuries correct. How many times has 2-3 weeks been 3 months.
My hope is it forces Mikel to revert to the White Saliba and Gabriel RB RCB and LCB partnership. We need our best defence if we want to challenge City for the title again. I’m actually not so worried about midfield, Jorginho and Rice will be alright.
I can imagine a 120Mn¥ bid coming from the Saudis for Gabriel ie the only reason perhaps why Mikel is not playing him.
Why are the Saudis bidding on Japanese Yen?
Keyboard problem which we Japanese face 😀
If big Gabby doesn’t start today, then that will confirm his head has been turned by the Saudi millions…
And if you are right we should have packaged him with Pepe, and cashed in. This will continue till the end January window.
Saudi window is open until Thursday
If we want stability in the EPL, the Premier League only have to state that the end of our window means no sales too.
I feel that’s unprofessional for them as it gives away clubs secrets and possible formations
This could even be a positive if we see last season’s back four in place with Gabriel. Although ideally I would like Partey, Rice and Odegaard as the three in midfield, but Mikel seems against that.
Here we fucking go again….🙄
Well, the silver lining here might be that if Ghana loses that game, I think it means they’re likely out of AFCON in January and we don’t lose Partey for a month (or more if he comes back injured) then.
I’ve heard rumours that the injury is quite serious and Partey could be out for many weeks. Hope it’s not true.
This could actually be a blessing in disguise: no “inverted” right-back against United would be an advantage. I want to see White there, and Gabriel back in the middle. Sadly, Havertz will certainly start now.
We won’t win today. I can see a high-scoring draw: 2-2 or even 3-3.
Our defending is hopeless.
I think we will win. United will be without Shaw and Varane. If our defence is “hopeless,” then theirs is non-existent.
Shaw has been their best player. Varane is perhaps not what he once was at Madrid, but they are a much better side when he plays than any other combination they have.
Your positivity is truly inspiring. We will crush them.
Don’t think we’ll win the title either, difficult to see past Man City winning (buying) the title again!!
At least he won’t be playing RB.
No injury is welcome, but on the positive side at least it simplifies things a little on the right side. Benjamin White will need to be deployed at right back, Saliba at his preferable right-side in the central defense. Everybody agrees that Big Gabi should be to his left, but even if not we have Kiwior there and Zinchenko/Tomiyasu in the left back slot. As 22/23-is as it gets, and I don’t think this is a bad thing.
Probably an ‘inverted’ groin.
Edu has a way of convincing national teams to leave out his players for non crunch or dead rubber games. Hope this is one of the them but it’s unfortunate not to have TP for Man Utd. He always seems imperious against big opposition.
Lets calm down we have jorginho. His presence is really calming. I would rather do with him in the middle than a partey on the right.
As harsh as it may sound, to me this kind of problem may just fast-track what the long term plan probably was for Declan Rice all along- sign an elite, young central midfielder to remove our dependance on a fantastic, but frustratingly injury prone player. I get keeping Partey in the team to remove the pressure from Rice coming into the team and to help him adjust to our style of build up play. But as many have already said, one of Rice’s biggest strengths is how quickly he’s able to learn, and take on board new instructions. And three… Read more »
This could be a blessing in disguise. It’ll hopefully force Arteta to play White at RB and Gabriel at CB like last year. Knowing Mikel though he’ll probably play Tomiyasu at RB and keep Gabriel out.
Injury prone, 30 years old, in the last two years of his contract and has personal issues. He should’ve been sold in the summer window but for some reason everyone thinks he’s “elite”. He’s bloody sloppy half the time.
Definitely not. He was the best DM in the league last season for the majority of the 33 games he played. Nobody is saying sell Zinchenko, Jesus or Saliba who all played fewer games last season than Partey.
Who should he have been sold to? Fernebache for 15 million. It’s a long season having a player of Partey’s quality is a good thing even if it’s for 70% of the games.
I must admit I’m beginning to lose patience now with this chronically repetitive situation.
Every time the dude goes away with Ghana he gets injured. WTAF do they do with him………?
Tired of it.
As a supporter it’s frustrating to see an important player injured just before a major game like United but that being said injuries are part of the game and every team deals with them and on top of it all there is never a good time for an injury. Adapt and overcome. This is an opportunity for someone to come in, step up and claim their spot in starting line up and make the best of it. For example we’ve often criticized Vieira performances, myself included, but last game against Fulham he was brilliant. At the end of the day… Read more »
For the first half of last season, there wasn’t a better central midfielder in the league than Partey, full stop, except maybe Rodri. That player is still there, and still wearing Arsenal colors. Mikel was using him differently at the end of last season and this season because of a few factors: the arrival of Declan Rice, who is the future of that position, combined with the absence of Zinchenko (and Saliba last year) which has required a reshuffle in the back line. Partey hasn’t been amazing, but he hasn’t been bad. He will look better restored to his best… Read more »
Reading thru the thread, I sense some panic here. I think we are in a far better position to deal with TP injuries than a season or 2 ago. We have the personnel with enough quality to beat Man U today and cope until TP recovers. It only comes down to the choices MA makes. That’s the one to watch.
Last year prior to a September game against MU, Partey got injured. This year we can call on Declan Rice and Jorginho. Chalk and cheese.
He is a luxury (nice to have) player. We cannot rely on him to stay fit through the season, so why bother? I guess that is why we keeping tab on Douglas Luiz as replacement. By now pretty sure Rice has cemented his place and Arteta is hellbent to prove all civilizations that Havertz worth the money. Maybe a suitable offer in January should be considered and reinvest.