Ghana have omitted Thomas Partey from their squad for the upcoming African Cup of Nations which gets underway in the Ivory Coast on 13 January.
The Arsenal midfielder, a regular for his country for the last six years, had been included on Chris Hughton’s 55-man long list but appears not to have made sufficient progress in his rehabilitation of a long-standing thigh injury to take part.
On his decision to omit Partey, Hughton said: “I’ve spent a lot over this period of time with Thomas and Arsenal staff. They will treat this injury with caution, and so will the player. This is a big injury for him and the biggest injury that he’s had.”
Partey picked up the problem in training ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Sevilla in October and is yet to return to full training. In November, it was estimated he’d be back by early January.
🚨Our #BlackStars for the AFCON 👊🏾
🤵♂️ Head Coach Chris Hughton has selected 27 players for the upcoming TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d'Ivoire 🇬🇭⚽️ #TotalEnergiesAFCON2023 pic.twitter.com/Fr1RTs4UPw
— 🇬🇭 Black Stars (@GhanaBlackstars) January 1, 2024
The 30-year-old featured in the first four games of the season, including the Community Shield, then suffered a groin issue that ruled him out for a month before making a 15-minute appearance in the 1-0 win over Manchester City.
In Partey’s absence, Mikel Arteta has relied on summer signing Declan Rice to anchor his midfield. While the England international has arguably been the club’s player of the season, he’s been out of sorts in the last couple of games.
Unfortunately, options to rotate are thin on the ground. While Jorginho is one alternative, Arsenal won’t be able to call on Mohamed Elneny who is heading to AFCON with Egypt.
We’ll undoubtedly learn more about Partey’s situation later in the week when Arteta previews the FA Cup clash with Liverpool. On a related note, the transfer window is now open and it’ll be interesting to see whether we’re tempted to shop for a midfielder.
Meanwhile, Takehiro Tomiyasu has been officially named in Japan’s Asian Cup squad. The date of his departure has yet to be confirmed, with Arsenal keen to hold onto him until after the FA Cup tie with Liverpool on January 6th – with Japan’s first game on January 14th.
Great news. Hopefully he can get himself fit and make a big difference over the second half of the season.
We are going through an awful patch right now, but if you want to be optimistic then at least the transfer window is now open. But we’ve got to make full use of it. We need to sign THREE quality players in order to turn our season around.
Cant see us signing three players in this window. Not sure the capitol is there to do one top signing like a Toney without selling. The Raya deal was a loan with an option to buy because it was the only way we could finance something, and his fee was £30M. So if we dont have the liquids for that deal, I just cant see how we can put a decent bid together for someone like a Toney, or another striker who has to be good enough to contribute something like 10 league goals when we get them in. But… Read more »
We have plenty of unwanted players to sell.
Eddie and Ramsdale should both go for sure. And what about Nelson, Elneny, ESR Cedric?
And there’s nothing stopping us from making loan signings.
There’s plenty of leeway here.
The key additions for me would be at left back and a strong defensive midfielder to take burden off Rice so Rice can play more in the way Xhaka played last year, particularly in combining with Martinelli. What worked last season was Xhaka’s high press and quick interchanges with Martinelli and also Xhaka’s ability to defend freeing Martinelli more. I would also love to sign Ivan Toney as Jesus can play in any of the front 3 positions and take the burden off Saka and Martinelli.
To take the burden off Rice, don’t we have Jorginho?
I would like to see Rice more advanced like Xhaka played superbly last season. Arteta does not start Jorginho or El Neny many times as both are slow on the counter offensive. We dont know when Thomas Partey will return so I think this position needs to be looked at. I think we will have to wait for summer for this signing.
Sell ESR? If that happens then we might as well throw in the towel on this project…
Well said Minty.
🍺 👍 🍺 👍
Ramsdale…? ESR….?
You’ve been on that cooking Sherry again, Fats? 🤣
Happy New Year mate. 🍺👍
Yeah I dont disagree with you in terms of getting money for players who just arent getting game time. But I dont see Eddie, ESR or Ramsdale going now under any circumstances, we’re fairly threadbare in midfield as it is, it would be ridiculous to sell Emile now. And isnt Eddie our second highest goal scorer with 5? After Saka with 6? I know he doesnt score loads of goals, but 5 goals could matter a huge amount to us in the run in, especially the way things are right now. As for Ramsdale, he will definitely go in the… Read more »
Perspective will help you see bigger, clearer and more honest picture. Eddie score 3 goals against Sheffield United. Have you seriously watched him play. He’s bang average. Championship level at best.
I guess Toney could also be a loan with an option to buy.
I would absolutely look to loan Toney before trying to buy him. No one knows what condition that dude will be in right now having been out for so long.
You can’t loan have two players on. loan from the same team. This prevents us from getting Toney on loan while Raya in also loaned to us.
Wasn’t aware of that rule, thanks.
Yeah — but I would also say that there’s no way Brentford would allow us to loan him anyway.
They want cash to enable their spending
But for this season, Toney will be as rusty as Nketiah has always been.
A rusty Toney would be miles better than a super fit but not very good nketia.
Three players? Mbappe, Haaland, Bellingham?
Lol – can we add a peak messi and Ronaldo for a couple of loan signings to see us over the line
Because, if all your solutions are pure fantasies, why stop half-way?
MA can’t handle ppl with attitude & talent.
We signed three players last January for a total of £45m. How many of them would you be happy to see start 30 games this season? The best players do not move in January and we shouldn’t ruin the good squad building we’ve done chasing dreams.
Don’t think it’s good news tbh, just means he’s no where near fit
Yep. Well said Fats.
Uncle Josh needs to flash that billionaire grin and get that big bad beardy chequebook out again.
Only three? Why not 4 or 5? Frankly, I am a little surprised you don’t think we need 11 new signings. Are you feeling okay?
I wish he was gone. Always injured, too much baggage. We need to get rid and replace him.
Not sure whether this is unusual or not but we seem to have a habit of buying crocked players at exorbitant prices. Leadership taking a slice off the cake thru the back doors???
Thomas’s fitness record was exemplary before he joined us.
Partey was renowned for being largely injury free – until he signed for us….
I think that’s the plan – Zubimendi in the summer would be ideal
I know you have never been a fan of TP, but with recent results it really is a case of all hands on deck.
His experience could be pretty damn useful in the spring to help steady a rocking ship that at the moment is sailing around Cape Horn in 100 ft waves – even Declan Rice is losing his shit with Gabriel.
I wonder is he injured at all
Could be great bonus for us, hopefully once fit stays that way until the end of the season. A key player for us but please not at full back.
Still TP6 is the main man
Thank God. We desperately needed a Thomas Partey pass yesterday.
On form, he is arguably our best player, unfortunately staying fit has been the challenge and that’s unfortunate!
I hope the injury gods smile on us this time,,, Liv and City will obviously draw matches and we should be in a position take advantage when that happens.
But fellows, can we all concede that we haven’t been playing well for sometime now? The last two matches have just exposed us big time but it was always there. I hope this can be rectified soon enough.
Happy new year Gunners!
If we’ve pulled some big club shit (Fergie used to do it all the time) & this isn’t because he’s had a massive set back, then this is huge. Season-defining type huge.
Bukay saka is a good player but we need a substitute player for him because now days his performance in this two games it’s seems to be poor
Trossard is.
Unfortunately Trossard is also very out of form.
One thing that separates Arteta from Klopp and Pep imo is the other two know when to make a change for the sake of novelty/freshness. Salah is the best in the world in Saka’s position, but even he gets rotated between RW and second striker to keep opponents guessing.
I’d love to see for e.g. Odegaard attack from the left 8 every few games, or Havertz up front with GJ on the right. Not because it’s our “optimal” setup, but because it’s less predictable.
True, this. And give Emile Smith Rowe some proper game time ffs!
Great, hopefully he will be match fit for the next AFCON.
Just means he’s not going to be fit anytime soon. If there was a chance he could play, even starting mid-tournament, they’d pick him. Agree he could be a key player for us. Also agree that he needs to be replaced in the summer because at best for us he’s been available for two thirds of a season.
It’s time to get rid. Enough of these sentiments. This guy is never fit when needed. We have suffered a lot just because of the few admittedly good performances he puts out from time to time. As it stands, I’d rather have a Mario Lemina calibre who will be available than a world class perma-crock holding us back. Same goes for Tomiyasu as well. How many times did our season go belly up because of injuries to Rosicky, RVP or Walcott during the Wenger days? Yet we never did anything to rectify the situation. As much as I love them,… Read more »
We still have a major problem at the left 8 position as Havertz just is not the answer. Sure he had a spell of a few goals with runs into the box, but he was totally anonymous yet again against Fulham. Would love to see a healthy Partey back at the holding mid role and Rice being able to push forward as we need more firepower in the attack especially since I doubt we’ll be able to add to the squad in a meaningful way in January.
I don’t want Toney anywhere near the team, even on loan. We desperately need a quality wide player who can rotate with Saka, a midfielder and maybe a striker on loan. Jesus is good but not the guaranteed 20+ goal a season striker we need. We should have snapped up Harry Jane, I don’t care if he was a spud, we had Sol come to us and look how he got on!
Harry Kane lol
Olise, Eze and Solanke would be good additions in the attacking third. But with the English tax, a premium getting them off Crystal Palace and Bournemouth
I don’t want Ivan Toney anywhere near the team either, he’s a gobshite and a self confessed gambling addict. We don’t need a personality like that or a Tonali situation.
Good.
Don’t let him anywhere near the Ghana National squad – he’ll become injured for another six months before you can even whisper ACN.
Don’t even let him pick up the phone to them – he’ll pick up an ear infection.
I wouldn’t mind some Partey