According to The Mirror, Thomas Partey could return to action by the end of January.
The midfielder has only played 15 minutes for Arsenal since September and was being eased back from a groin injury, via a couple of international friendlies, when he picked up a thigh issue in training.
The 30-year-old was hoping to be part of Ghana’s squad for this month’s African Cup of Nations but his recovery has taken longer than expected and Chris Hughton, coach of the Black Stars, decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
“I’ve spent a lot over this period of time with Thomas and also engaging with the medical staff at Arsenal Football Club,” he told a pre-tournament press conference.
“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.
“The most important thing for me as head coach and our association is to give him the support that he needs through this period of time.
“From all the information that we’ve been given, the timelines of his recovery and the caution that will be taken, will not meet our timelines for the AFCON.”
Partey has travelled to Dubai with the rest of the Arsenal first team for a week of warm-weather training and is thought to be targeting the away game at Nottingham Forest on 30 January for his long-awaited return.
Given the Gunners aren’t expected to spend big in the January transfer window, Mikel Arteta will be very pleased to have an experienced player back in the fold for the second half of the season.
Well that is potentially good news . Although it has to borne in mind it’s from the Mirror and it will probably only be for two weeks …
In all seriousness, I don’t like the look of a 30yo Partey making repeated sprints at RB one bit. If Arteta plays him there again I expect him to be injured again by March.
There’s an argument to say playing him at RB, and no doubt training him there, has caused this injury.
Just don’t dilute his role, keep him in focussed on CM where he is one of the best in the world IMO.
I think Partey has been such a massive miss for us this season, which people haven’t talked about that much. He was pretty much the key to our success last season and we’ve barely had him so far. His quick vertical ball progression is a massive part of what makes our front 3 dangerous and him and rice in midfield is something I’ve only seen about 15 minutes of against City and loved. Hope to see much more for the rest of the season!
Xhaka has been a massive miss too. We really should have given him a two year extension in the summer.
Which only goes to show how good Rice is – taking on the lions share of what both Partey and Xhaka gave us and more.
Jorghino and Vieira aren’t at the level required to consistently provide adequate cover, the former is at the twilight of his career, the latter at the start.
Sure we’ve missed them both to some extent, but our defense is stronger (lower xGA, chances conceded, and lower goals against), we’re creating quite a lot (just look at Marty O, he’s creating even more chances than last season). So we’re tighter at the back, creating plenty, but not scoring goals…
Our forwards need to step the fuck up!!
Seemingly Xhaka wanted to leave and return to Germany. I’d be pretty certain that Mikel would have kept him if he could.
I do wonder if Xhaka stayed, would we have still signed Havertz.
In a word no
Totally agree. He’s been key to our success/downfall since he came. Year before last if he stayed fit we got Top 4. I’d take a fully fit Partey for remaining games of the season over any signing. Literally this time last year the biggest debate in football was who was better Rodri or Partey and look how well City do without Rodri. I’d have a midfield of partey Rice ode and then rotate with Havertz for both number 8s and drop Rice back to 6 to reduce parteys minutes but I’m sure arteta has thought about this laying awake every… Read more »
Some matches with Partey, Rice, and Odegaard–Rice becomes Aaron Ramsey.
Reckon what’s missing from most of these debates is that while left 8 might not be Rice’s best position, he’s by been by far our best left 8. The few times he’s played there were all good performances which isn’t even remotely the case for anyone else who’s played there. So when he and Partey played together is when our midfield has looked its best and most dominant all season.
Agreed. At this point, he will be like a new signing.
Back on the treatment table you mean? My honest take on his continued stay at Arsenal?
Get rid.
As much as we all love what he brings when fit, his absence during critical parts of the season hurts our chances of winning a trophy.
Who would we have got to replace him? We didn’t have the money for Caicedo (who has been worse than rubbish), so perhaps if we’d have taken the Saudi cash we’d have got Lavia… who has spent longer on the treatment table than Partey has. Unfortunately it’s a very tough position to recruit proper talent in and the club took the view that TP despite the risks was better than the other options out there. Personally, I find it a lot more forgivable than the decisions made re. a striker, when it was an obvious weakness in our squad and… Read more »
but please lets’ stop talking about balogun who has not managed to reach the heights of his last season, 4 goals in 15 appearances, 972 minutes played a goal every 243 minutes, totally underwhelming. there are 17 players with more goals than him
Yeah have you ever watched the French ligue 1, the defending in most games is awful, hence Lacca was 3rd top scorer last season, PSG with all the Trillions spent can never get further than a quarter finals in CL, Eddie would be scoring 25+ a season, lets not forget the £72 million we paid for Pepe, where is he now ? Turkey i think, even if we bought Mbappe in January he would probably get injured in the warm up for his 1st game..
King may I politely draw your attention to an article that the brilliant Tim Stillman posted a few hours ago. At AM Party was played on average for 62 mins. Please read his article and it all falls into place and makes sense. Regards
At least we have cover at RB
I think we’ve really mised him. Obviously Rice has been amazing, a beast, but I still think there are a couple of things Thomas does better. He’s the kind of player to receive the ball with 2-3 players next to him, turn around with one of them on his back and make a quick pass forward. It’s hard to compare last season’s Partey to this season’s Rice, in a different system, but… Partey (per 90) had more take-ons attempted at a much higher rate (78% vs. 54%), higher SCA (2.57 vs. 2.07), and recovered the ball much higher up the… Read more »
Partey had Xhaka, who was more than happy to make a tackle and take a yellow for the team. Rice has Kai, so Rice needs to be more careful.
Havertz actually makes more tackles per 90 than Xhaka did last season (I’m not saying they are better, they are often unnecessarily reckless, it just highlights that he’s more than willing to make a tackle)
Havertz is actually a good tackler. The stats says that, not only is he attempting more tackles, he is winning more than Xhaka did.
While that is down to the fact that we didn’t have to tackle as much last season because we had the ball more than we have had the ball this season, we have to appreciate Havertz’ work rate. That is an unexpected quality.
Excellent post.
If you could amalgamate the best of Rice, Partey and Odegaard you pretty much have the perfect midfielder.
Looking forward to seeing our gegenpressing trequartista Cerberus absolutely destroy Forest in a few weeks
We’ve missed you big time TP.
Getting you ready for the business part of the season will be crucial.
“Injury”
We can only hope that they’ve been using some Arabian thoroughbred horse placenta on him. Or maybe some Bengal Tiger intestines or Blue Whale thyroid?
Mate it’s not 2008.
Peruvian gnat goolies is where it’s at in 2024
I don’t understand the unwavering support of a player who has spent more time on the treatment table than playing and who is nearly 31 years old.
Arsenal should be looking to replace him rather than keeping him on – it places strain on the squad covering him and is literally giving away hundreds of thousands of pounds a month – money that could be spent on a younger and futter player.
Maybe just maybe he stays fit for rest of season. You won’t see city fans bemoaning debruyne missing first half of season now he’s back.
I doubt Me2 would complain if he was fit for the rest of the season. He almost certainly won’t be fit and remain fit for the second half of season. It also wasn’t the point he was making.
I fully agree we should be looking to replace him, apart from his atrocious injury record and high wages there is off field baggage and distractions. Is he the future of AFC? No. Is he managing to be the now of AFC? No.
I think you’re overlooking the fact that Partey, when fit, is simply an amazing footballer. If we wanted to bring in a replacement that is just as good as fit Thomas is, but also younger and less injury-prone, we’d have to spend 50-100 million, which we cannot do in this transfer window.
“Amazing” no. Good yes. Injuries aside, and as many have pointed out that is a big aside, his performances have never ever been consistent enough for him to be thought of as an amazing footballer.
Fair enough, amazing when fit and in form then 😉 That’s what you have squad depth and rotation for though.
Well, even if we had the money, who would that be? There are only a handful of equally talented (or potentially so) younger players who have shhown they can play that role. Maybe Tchouameni at Madrid. I’m sure there are others, but Partey’s obvious superiority to Caicedo shows how rare that is.
If we can somehow get him fit and keep him fit he could make a massive difference between now and the end of the season.
Have you heard the news? Apparently we’ve made a bid for a player called Borja Mayoral. He’s a Spanish striker.
I’m throughly underwhelmed
Is it because of the cold climate in England which makes our non British players crocked all the time?
Lucas Perez, Welbeck underwhelming but it’s from the sun so probably some made up stuff surely
Welbeck scored important goals for us 👍
Oh might have guessed – “Spanish”…
The gap between ATTACKING MONSTERS Liverpool and STAGNANT WASTERS Arsenal is 6 goals in 20 games.
Six. Goals.
The media has a lot to answer for.
Five points too.
Yep, well said Alex.
I have purposely avoided the media – especially Sky – like the plague – otherwise the tv would have gone through the window faster than you can say Keith Moon.
We beat the phlegm spouters at the Emirates, it’s game fucking on. Simple as that.
That really is a must win. I’d gladly swap an FA Cup 3rd Round exit for those three points.
Telegraph have dropped a different name, Joshua Zirkzee of Bologna.
Personally I don’t think we’ll sign a striker this window.
TP back this month means Mikel can at least try him at number 6, and Rice further forward at number 8 to inject something different to our attack.
Lans
No chance
Let’s hope we don’t push him too hard this time. Thomas is needed for the big games and others can lighten the load against weaker opposition.
as of now we can’t even beat weaker opposition.
Im a firm believer of play the best players available for every match till end of season. We cannot afford to drop needless points. I’m at the stage that I’d rather not have our best players on the bench when they could just as easily pick up an injury in training
For that you need players that don’t break down after a run of ten matches. For the rest there needs to be a break every now and then. This is what cost the league last year.
Don’t push him to hard ?? he’s a professional football player for gods sake!! who gets paid more money a month than i will make in 10 years if I’m lucky not to be ‘injured’, he will predictively have a few games for us at last end of season for him to go to Camel league seeing out a 100% injury free 2 seasons
There must be a typo. It should say 3 months 😂
Thank God
He’ll be like a new signing
True, but for how long? Could be Abu Diaby 2.0.
Is this an Arsene three weeks or three actual weeks?
Diaby V2
Back for a few games then the hammy goes again 🙁
We are better with Partey, end of. If Saliba and Partey stayed fit last year we win the league!
Party is the best holding midfielder in the league without question. Arteta does know this but not others….