Charles Watts, the Arsenal correspondent for Goal, has been discussing the club’s new signing Thomas Partey during a recent video on his YouTube channel.
The Gunners signed the midfielder from Atletico Madrid on deadline day having met his minimum fee release clause of €50m (£45.3m) to add to Mikel Arteta’s midfield options following the departures of both Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi on loan.
The Ghanaian was in action for his country on Monday and the 27-year-old provided two assists as his side defeated Qatar 5-1 (as per Goal) and Watts revealed when he is expected at London Colney ahead of Arsenal’s trip to the Etihad Stadium this coming weekend, here is what he had to say:
“Probably about Wednesday I think Arsenal are expecting him at London Colney, a good three days ahead of that game against Manchester City on Saturday at the Etihad. If he does make his debut, which we expect he will, it is certainly going to be a difficult start to life for Thomas Partey at Arsenal.
“You don’t get much [tougher] than a trip to the Etihad on your debut, but that’s the way the cards have been dealt, and the way Thomas Partey has been playing the last couple of years, I doubt he is going to go there with any fear. He’ll go there [and] hopefully add a lot of bite, tenacity, quality, class to the Arsenal midfield.”
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TIF Thoughts on Charles Watts’ Arsenal update on Thomas Partey…
The £36m-rated midfielder made 35 appearances in La Liga last season, averaging an impressive performance rating of 7.08/10, as well as making 8 appearances in the UEFA Champions League, in which his average performance rating was an even better 7.55/10 (as per WhoScored).
Taking the above into account, it is clear Partey is capable of performing at a high level consistently over the course of a season in one of Europe’s finest domestic leagues as well as in the continent’s premier cup competition and so it could be argued that high profile fixtures don’t faze him.
It will be interesting to see whether he walks straight into Mikel Arteta’s side at the weekend and if so, whether or not that will lead to a formation change from the Spaniard.