Gary Neville has suggested that Thomas Partey is the most irreplaceable player at Arsenal.
It’s hard to argue with the Sky pundit, considering there are no particularly able deputies at Mikel Arteta’s disposal for the 29-year-old.
While the young Albert Sambi Lokonga is clearly talented, he is much more comfortable as a deep lying playmaker rather than in a traditional No.6 position.
As for Mohamed Elneny, he lacks the expansive passing ability of the £200,000-a-week lynchpin amongst other traits to fill in him for a long stretch of games.
Considering these factors, Gary Neville is correct in pointing out that there is not a more irreplaceable player at Arsenal than Thomas Partey.
Fortunately for the league leaders, the former Atletico Madrid anchor has remained injury-free this season, which has allowed him to have the excellent campaign the world knew he was capable of having.
Gary Neville on the importance of Thomas Partey to Arsenal
On Monday Night Football, Gary Neville highlighted how essential Thomas Partey is to Arsenal, saying, “We asked that question earlier on in terms of which player if you took them out the Arsenal team would do the most damage if they lost them and you probably would have said [Gabriel] Jesus a few weeks ago but [Eddie] Nketiah has been unbelievable.”
“If I looked at them now, I think I would say [Thomas] Partey, having watched them in the 3 games since Christmas.”
“Honestly, in these 3 games I’ve seen live since Christmas, I just think he’s holding a lot together in terms of the glue between the back 4 and [Martin] Odegaard, and the strikers.”
As Gary Neville has said, Thomas Partey plays than lone defensive midfielder role extremely well, with the likes of Xhaka and Odegaard bombing forward, which would make his potential absence a crushing blow for Arsenal this season.
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