Ray Parlour has stated that he is ‘sure’ Thomas Partey will start Arsenal’s visit to Burnley on Saturday, as he told talkSPORT (14/09/21 at 9:25 am).
The Highbury legend shared that he is ‘expecting big things’ from Partey at Arsenal this season.
It has been a stop-start to life at Arsenal for Partey since the Ghanian swapped Madrid for London.
Over the weekend, he came off the bench during Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Norwich, and is now in contention to make his first start of the campaign at Turf Moor.
Given that Albert Sambi Lokonga and Ainsley Maitland-Niles faired well over the weekend, it will be interesting to see if Mikel Arteta changes a winning team.
Parlour certainly thinks so because he expects his name to be in that starting line-up when the teams come out at 2pm on Saturday.
“I am sure Partey will start if he is 100% next week,” said Parlour. “That’s the big question mark really (injuries).
“At Atletico, he played every game. Whether it’s a slower build-up. I think it is in Spain. They come to life in that final third.
“Whether he has found it energetic in that midfield. You have to be mobile. I am expecting big things from him.
“There is certainly a lot of room for improvement this season. If he can improve then it makes them a lot better in that midfield area.”
Partey’s appearance over the weekend is a welcome return to action for the injury-prone player… well, that’s been the case during his time in England, anyway.
It seems as though Arteta wants a centre-back pairing of Gabriel and Ben White – he got that against Norwich.
But to make the XI stronger, it seems as though he wants to fit Partey in ahead of them.
Well, he has the chance to do so against a Burnley side that will be a lot tougher, hard-hitting and direct than what Norwich and Manchester City were previously.
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