Mikel Arteta has revealed that Thomas Partey’s return to action is on hold for the time being after the Ghana international suffered a setback in his recovery from a long-term thigh problem.
The midfielder appeared to be making good progress when he was pictured in first team training a week ago, however, the boss was quick to rule him out of Tuesday’s trip to Nottingham Forest and now says he’s not sure when the 30-year-old will be available.
“Thomas, unfortunately, had a little setback a few days ago so he’s not going to be available to be in the squad,” said Arteta ahead of Sunday’s match with Liverpool.
“Whether it’s a matter of days or weeks we will see, but he had a little thing.
“I’m not a doctor but he felt something again in a very similar area and he wasn’t able to train the last few days.”
“It’s a big concern,” he added. “He’s such an important player for us and he was getting some momentum at the start of the season and then we lost him for a while.
“And now it’s been a long time without him. He gives us something very different that no other player can give us in this squad. And he’s been a real miss.”
Asked if Partey’s ongoing injury issues are a case of bad luck, he continued: “Well, there have been different kinds of injuries, but not everything is bad luck.
“There’s a lot of things that are very difficult to control as well, and obviously, the player has a history as well where he has some issues in the past, but we have to try to protect him and do everything that we can to try to avoid it again.”
In better news, Arteta confirmed that Gabriel Jesus, despite revealing he nearly missed Tuesday’s trip to the City Ground after getting kicked on the knee, has been training all week.
We have entered Wilshere/Rosicky/Diaby/Cazorla territory with Partey now, where the timeline is never accurate. Weeks become months. Months become seasons.
Sadly we’re much more into Diaby territory with Partey now. Despite their injury problems, at least the others there were able to have sustained spells of fitness at various stages of their Arsenal career. Difficult to see Partey on the other hand putting any sort of run together at this point. Don’t know if there was a market for him this Summer, but if there was then we really missed the boat there
Luckily it won’t go on much longer. Different class on his day, but those days fewer and farther between now.
Over/under on this being Mikel PSYOP and he starts against Liverpool? 😂
Definitely not. Partey played 33 PL games last season. Diaby hardly played that many post broken ankle in 4-5 seasons.
I will forever be haunted by the dreaded “3 weeks” for RVP, which would always turn into 3 months
Seasons become life-times
With all due respect to Thomas Partey, his injury issues and lack of availability to contribute is a detriment to our club. Conscious that he might play a key part later in the season he needs to be sold. Actually just quite gutted because I was hoping to see him in a double pivot with Rice against Liverpool on Sunday.
I know this is a horrible thing
The argument that he’s so good and we miss him so much that we should sell him, is ludicrous.
There are similar if not more injury prone players in the squad that haven’t got his quality that we don’t advocate selling. Plus, if we don’t want him for another season at no cost to us, who would buy him?
ESR is the only one with who’s as bad as Partey. I guess people would give him more time because of his age
I doubt anyone would pay actual money for him. Maybe the Italians will send us a year’s supply of pasta as recompense.
When I said he needed to be sold in the summer I got a whole load of down votes. He’s a total waste of a squad place and huge salary, he’s never ever been available when we’ve really needed him and I can’t forget all his personal issues either. He’ll probably be given away in the end, he simply can’t stay fit.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but yes it would have been ideal if we had sold him back in summer and got a long term replacement in
Was a tough call. He was absolutely excellent start of last season until March time, when injuries and fatigue caught up
Get off your high horse with the person issue stuff, you know feck all about it.
I imagine you got the downvotes because everybody else realised that selling him wasn’t realistic. Nobody was going to invest the money in him needed to make us consider the deal. That doesn’t change this summer.
It’s a real shame bc he didn’t have an extensive injury record before moving over
As Tim Stillman dug up some months back, he used to be subbed a lot in the second half with Atletico. Lovely player though.
That’s the point I’ve been making and nobody seems to be asking that question. Why do we buy players with little or no injury record that end up being constantly injured?!
Training pitch? Stadium pitch? What da hell is going on?
Totally agree. Get shot.
Depending on how his fitness goes from now until the summer I tend to agree about moving him on – but as he’s likely to be injured again before this season ends, possibly multiple times then I can see him playing out his last season with us and leaving on a Bosman in 2025.
I assume we tried. His issues (injuries and otherwise) are no secret.
Thats the issue with players you want to sell. Usually, no one wants to buy.
I know some top clubs in Europe which were lining up to throw money at a very injury ravaged veteran on huge wages just to help Arsenal clear ” a huge waste of space” and free up “a huge salary ”
The club and readers on Arseblog news really let you down big time. I agree with you. We should have taken that 500M from cash rich Barcelona
We were clearly going to get a minimum fee for him because that’s all he’s worth. Nobody is going to pay much for a permacrock, but at least we’d get rid of his salary, he’s a total waste of money.
He played 33 PL games last season. More than half our squad and nore than a 3/4 of the league.
Got used to not having him around.
Perfect timing.
FFS.
He can be very helpful on the attack. And also has the occasional defensive issue as a downside.
BUT…geez, we’re starting to enter perma-crock territory now. Needs to be gone in the summer.
To move him on you need a club willing to pay a fee as well as his big wages. Not sure that’s realistic given his injury record. Will probably stick around for one more year and then leave on a bosman in 2025.
They should’ve moved him last summer when there was an offer from Saudi and he was still in “good-if-not-always-available” territory. Between Rice and Jorginho, the position was somewhat secure and the funds could’ve been used elsewhere. Now, yeah, difficult to get a fee.
Was there, perhaps, a possibility that he didn’t want to go to Saudi Arabia? Because, you know, that’s the end of it.
From the reporting around the time, he considered it before deciding against it. Part of that decision would have been that he still had a role here, which the club probably should have taken off the table (again, for fitness rather than quality reasons). He probably would’ve made a lot of free money as well, if Benzema’s ridiculous contract is anything to go by.
A real shame, but it’s time to move him on now. Something is clearly wrong at Arsenal: we seem to have far too many players picking up long-term injuries.
I’m I the only one who has already given up on this season? The result of the Liverpool game is immaterial: winning or losing won’t make any difference. We are good enough to finish third or fourth but not good enough to win the title or the CL.
We’re back to “fourth is a trophy”. A mediocre team that might win an FA Cup but nothing bigger.
Sad, isn’t it?
I am not ready to give up on this season. I may be Monday but not today. I also think you are being a bit of a downer. This team is a team that has ambition, is very young and getting better. Edu and Arteta aggressively pursue players that will make us better and do not sacrifice the future for a few pts now. That may cost us this season but we will be better next year for the additional over the summer. Would Wenger have bought any of the below: Partey ( No) Jesus ( No) Rice (No) Zinny… Read more »
Why the sudden attack on AW? Seems just a little unfair.
Win Sunday and who knows but lose and its battle for third for the rest of the season.
No mediocre team is in the top 4 or the PREM and knockout stages of the CL.
Hopefully, God willing, you are the only one. If you want to quit on this team, go find another team to support.
In terms of injuries, you’re still stuck in the previous decade. We have improved our injury record significantly.
The main issue these days is, that with a thin squad, guaranteed we’ll get a significant injury or two to players who really matter for our chances. Thats where money needs spent (after we get a proper CF).
You’ve actually become quite delusional. Our center backs literally never get injured. Ben White can play pretty much every game Rice the same. Martin same. Saka gets kicked every game and still plays. The list goes on. We are a much physically stronger team than before. Also much better defensively. Just need a bit more depth for an extremely competitive league. The league has changed. Very few pushovers now and a lot of money spent be all at the top
Saka, Jesus, Ode, Martinelli, I see massive talents but not enough of mental toughness.
God you’ve got such a loser mentality, I would honestly hate to be you. Why do you even bother ‘supporting’ a team it clearly doesn’t help with your depression.
I’m just a realist, my Shakespearean friend.
You just can’t face reality: you’re away with the fairies.
Ha, no Eeyore, a realist is some one who recognises the situation and deals with it accordingly whether good or bad. You are a pessimist who would rather see the negative and tell everyone about it.
The reality is we’re back in Champions League and through to the knock out stages. We’re in the title race, beat City already this year, and finished runner up last year. And we’re only getting better – we will improve with spending this offseason. That’s reality. We can go over statistics as well. We are statistically improving. And we are a young young team
Not as sad as eighth place.
Bore me later. go support Bayern or even man city where you will be guaranteed trophies. seems much more your style. FatCity or FatBayern.
The sugar high of last season has definitely worn off and this season has been a backwards fkn boring grind no doubt. I’ve already written it off but I have not written off Arteta. I am hopeful he will have learned a lot from this season and next year we’ll be serious contenders on all fronts. However, he needs to win something next season or I will question his future. He’s had tremendous backing from Stan and he needs to start delivering some silverware. Simple as that.
Mediocre teams tend to finish 3rd or 4th. I agree
Fuck me. Get rid
As if it’s that easy. Need a buyer and somewhere he will move too. Realistically, if he doesn’t move to the middle east then he stays until the end of his contract.
I beleive the technical term for his injury is “proper crocked”.
His spirit animal is the crocodile
FFS
Double bluff? I’m sure not, but would be really funny if he turned up on Sunday (still 2 days away). But as I said before, we’ll be lucky if he makes our Champions League Final Squad!!!!
He said similar about Rice and Gabriel for Nott Forest and they both started
Not really. There’s no doubt about his words here. He isn’t playing Sunday and could be out much longer.
Aye well…Not surprised, although did expect to see him play for at least a month or two before croaking again, just in time for the transfer window so we couldnt sell him.
Somehow, some way the very excellent (on his day) player must be moved on asap in the next window.
No more of this pish
Slight difference between ‘croaking’ and ‘getting crocked’……. he’s injured, not dead.
Might as well be dead to us lol.
Honestly don’t expect him to have any impact on our run in. If and when he does play again he will most likely go off with another injury within a match or two. Not being dramatic, just realistic given his history. We really should have sold him for whatever we could have gotten for him last Summer. Thankfully Rice has stayed healthy and pray he does for the remainder of the season.
Death, taxes…
We will never get a £ for him.
Great player but we can’t keep going on with him like this.
Arteta knew he was injured again before Window shut.
Surely there was a midfielder in the World, he could have gotten on loan until the end of the season.
Partey is a liability for the team and his wages are huge for the player who sits out for the entire season.
Sick of it now , time to fuck him off
I hope he returns in time for our CL games because we would look very strong with him and Rice in front of those CBs. Could give us a massive boost in that competition