According to John Cross in the Mirror, Thomas Partey has undergone a ‘specialist procedure’ to treat a thigh injury, and may not be back in action until 2024.
The Ghana international picked up the problem in a training session ahead of our trip to Sevilla in October, and has been sidelined since.
It has been an injury hit season so far for the 30 year old who started the first three games of the campaign at right back, but picked up a groin problem which kept him out of the next four Premier League games.
He made a comeback in the 1-0 win over Man City, then went on international duty as Ghana played two games in the United States. Over the two fixtures, he played a total of 110 minutes, before returning to Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta explained how they had been cautious with the midfielder, not playing him against Chelsea in order to start him in the Champions League, but the training ground injury put paid to those plans.
Now, according to this report, he looks set to miss the rest of 2023, but obviously quite when he will return is unclear. The manager said ‘weeks’ when asked about him last week, which is unusually open compared to his normal injury information.
Partey’s absence is a blow to Arsenal, and potentially to Ghana who will want him for their AFCON campaign which kicks off in mid-January. Whether he’s fit enough remains to be seen, and there may well be frustration if he does depart on international duty after such a long spell out.
It leaves the Gunners a bit short in midfield, and if Edu and Arteta aren’t planning January reinforcements we’d be very surprised.
This is the latest in a litany of injuries Partey has suffered since he arrived, and at some point you have to ask how sustainable his important presence in the squad is.
This is rubbish. I really feel for him, must be so frustrating!
Sad….but now Arteta’s 105m decision makes so much sense! Elneny should leave and get replaced by a youngster with a high ceiling
Yesterday, Arteta spoke about Jorginho like a combination of KDB and Partey.
Why put a youngster on the bench never to play? Shouldn’t we develop the youngster with a high ceiling through game time and loans?
Yeah I agree, but like FatGooner mentioned earlier we should have been smart & should’ve sold him last summer .
It’s clear he should have gone in the summer as he only really gives you 50% of a season and that isn’t good enough
I know it does not make sense depth and quality wise for the midfield, but I wish we had indeed sold him this summer.
Hindsight is Partey/Partey.
You can’t predict players’ health unfortunately, only make educated guesses. Hope he can come back and still play an important role for us this season, such a brilliant player on his day. And if he does only come back in Jan maybe it’l actually be good for him to go to the AFCON to find some rhythm, that way Ghana absorbs the inevitable 3-4 games of him being rusty instead of it being at our expense.
There was enough precedent to make a (different) informed decision about Partey this summer. He’s been far from a reliable player and the club really gambled by making him part of their long-term plans.
You said it. It doesn’t make sense.
So you want Partey to be “parti”.
100% we should have sold him. I think the writing was on the wall between injuries and off-field issues and his value was still reasonably high. I said it then and I’ll say it now, we should have sold him and bought a younger, less polished version as a backup to rice. Imagine if we didn’t get Rice in the summer, we’d be f*cked this season. Now he’s played nothing, getting paid a lot and has lost a good chunk of value. It’s a difficult decision selling such a good player but availability is critical. He doesn’t have it. That… Read more »
Letting Xhaka go instead was always going to be a gamble.
I wanted him sold in the summer and the club should take whatever thay can for him and move on. Everyone talking like he’s going to come back from AFCON without another injury, which is highly unlikely. With his injury concerns, age, off field issues and the fact that he’s got about 18 months left on his contract the club should just move on quickly.
Off field issues as in? Anything you know about Partey which some of us not privy to? Besides unproven rumours. Prior to joining arsenal, Partey’s injury record was not that bad. Robin van Persie was a much more injury prone than Partey and due to arsenal’s patience, it eventually paid out. ESR is currently going through the same issues. Does it mean we should ditch him. When fit, Partey is one of the best midfielders in the league and is one of Arteta’s key components. The long lay off might be that they might have figured out what his underlying… Read more »
If we haven’t already started looking around for an upgrade, we sure as hell need to.
Right now.
On his day, a brilliant player – but he’s seemingly never ever fit for more than a few games. If we are to be serious challengers for the top prizes, we have to do better than this.
Yes, we need a new world class striker, but Partey needs to be replaced too.
When you look and see that Jorginho and Elneny aren’t getting any younger, it becomes all the more pressing.
The club have signed a player in his position every season since he arrived and he is fit for “more than a few games”. Last season only Gnabry played more league games than Partey in the entire Bayern squad.
His availability is comparable to the other best players in his position. Missed literally half the number of games through injury than Kante, Modiric, Kroos…
Only missed 14 games more than Casemiro since 2014…
Fabinho missed 31 games since 18/19 season Partey 58 in his entire career.
He’s played 73% of PL games since he signed….
He’s never been around when we’ve really needed him.
The top four push in 2021/22. And then in and out again last season. Now we’re just into November – and he’s out again.
Mate, I’m not having a pop at him – on his day he is a different gravy – look at the home victory against Tottenham last season. Superb. But we just don’t get that often enough from him. He goes away with Ghana, someone within a few yards of him sneezes and he’s out for another six weeks.
Not sustainable.
“He’s never available when we really need him”. So we need him in during the season run in and we need him at the start of the season… I mean when do we not need him? Given that you’re advocating selling the guy, you’re not making a great case. By selling him all you do is ensure he’s never around.
Keep him but don’t rely on him is my point. We wouldn’t have been in a race for top4 in 2022 without him and last season we wouldn’t have been in a title race either
We can’t have passengers in the squad and he’s always had injury issues. He apparently wants to leave now, good, just go ffs.
I mean Rice has effectively replaced him already, feels like maybe we rather need to concentrate on that “left 8” position where Rice would’ve played if Partey were fit? Especially since it’s becoming clear Havertz does so much better playing on the right and isn’t really suited to it either.
Maybe Arteta should make Zinchenko change position a la Wenger.
I have always been saying this same thing. We already have a left 8 in Zinko. Tomi and Timber (when he returns) can do the left back job better so that Zinko can focus on midfield.
He’s making Diaby look like Steve Redgrave. Shame, as he is a titan on his day.
Talk about being a Partey pooper
Time for Zinny to shine as a DM… or an option there.
Zinny unfortunately can’t really be trusted in the middle of the park on his own. He loses concentration from time to time and I wouldn’t deem him secure enough. The left 8 is where I would like to see him.
Him losing concentration is due to the triple role he is asked to play LB LW CM
Xhaka would have surely excelled alongside Rice if we had kept the Swiss
It seems a very big part of the fan base seems to ignore that Xhaka wanted to leave.
True but I believe Arteta could have convinced him to stay if he really wanted to.
Granit wanted a two year deal extension – not what Arteta wanted so he left. We could have kept him. We should have kept him…
I think we would have kept him, if he wanted to stay.
Don’t like the idea of two not particularly technical players manning the middle for us, the reason I think we wanted to move on from Xhaka was his lack of close control and quick passing to beat the press in big games, and so far that’s Rice’s biggest (perhaps should say only) weakness. We need a Modric/Xavi type there imo, someone with really quick thinking and quick feet who helps us bridge defense and attack.
Perhaps it’s time we say Salam Partey and look to fill his spot?
This guy’s body has gradually but steadily broken down under the gruesome demands of the EPL. And sadly, I don’t think we’ll have that Thomas Teye Partey we all love any longer. Italy might be the best bet going forward – for his sake and that of Arsenal. Painful.
Partey’s League appearances don’t look like a gradual decline to me:
22/23 – 33
21/22 – 24
20/21 – 24 (+2 in Spain before he arrived)
This feels so strange because you could literally count the days he missed due to injury at Atletico on 1 hand. Ever since joining us, his injury record has really become woeful.
If we are going to continue being ruthless with the squad building, I think he might be getting offloaded in the summer.
Why do you need to be ruthless with one of your best players? He’s not holding us back any more than ESR or Elneny or any other player who isn’t playing. Unlike those players we know when Partey is out because we miss him. That’s not his fault, it’s the fault of the club for not having adequate back-up/replacements. If we sell him in Jan or in the summer we’ll get next to nothing for him and we will still need the replacement player. Why not keep one of the best holding midfielders in the league and benefit from that… Read more »
Hey, completely agree with you that he is one of our most influential players. But at the same time, his frequency of the injuries (and the varied duration of him being out) makes it very difficult to think of him as part of the core/spine of the team over the entire season. As for why offload him in the summer, he is just about on the wrong side of 30 now.. So his value is going to go downhill soon. If we keep him AND get a replacement, considerations be needed to manage squad size and wage bill. This might… Read more »
I thought we tried to unload him this summer but never got an acceptable offer or any offers.
This is the latest in a litany of injuries Partey has suffered since he arrived, and at some point you have to ask how sustainable his important presence in the squad is.
33 PL games last season. It’s more sustainable than half a dozen players in the squad who miss more games but somehow don’t get the same “He NeEdS tO bE soLd” treatment.
Yep, played a lot last season but he has had a fair amount of injuries since he joined.
Previous season, for example, he missed the entire run-in when we really needed him, but some of that is on the club for not having sufficient depth.
But he’s now 30, coming up to 12 months left on his current deal, and if they’re not thinking about trying to replace him, they’re not thinking properly.
They’ve been thinking about replacing him for 3 years. Sambi, Jorginho, Rice.
Yes, we’ve missed him at times but that’s not his fault and selling him only guarantees we’re going to miss him going forward.
We’ve missed him all season and we’re going to miss him for at least 3 more months yet too.
The important is to replace his qualities. Namely his famous ability to manoeuvre through pressure. And then put Rice as a left 8.
Exactly. Thank you.
How many has he missed since joining? How does that compare to other players? Strong bet that he is either our worst, or second-worst player when compared to other first-choice-when-healthy players.
Looks like another contract extension for Elneny.
Thomas Glassey
Thomas Part(donk)ey
It was really a bad idea to play him at Right Back. Which demanded a lot from him physically
What if Arsenal brings back Charlie P? Might it work?
Charlie showing his Arsenal credentials by having PGMOL apologise for both yellow cards being wrong in his sending off at the weekend. I don’t think he’s anywhere near first team level yet though.
Too early for Charlie. He’s getting good game time at Swansea, much more important for him at this stage.
Painful though it is, we have to move on from Thomas Partey. As a club, we’ve seen where this leads with players in the past. You rely on them because of high skill levels, but missing so many games is damaging each season.
Unless we see dramatic improvement in Havertz, Vieira and Smith-Rowe’s injury record, I’d look for a new first choice 8 and play Declan Rice at 6.