‘Game-changer’: Ian Wright hails Arsenal 27-year-old who ‘does not pass it sideways’

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Ian Wright told Premier League Productions that Thomas Partey is a ‘game-changer’ for Arsenal.

The Highbury legend thinks Arsenal’s big-money summer capture ‘does not pass the ball sideways’.

Arsenal recorded a deserved and valuable win at Southampton on Tuesday night, with Partey bossing the midfield, alongside the rejuvenated Granit Xhaka.

Wright spoke in glowing terms about Partey and why he makes such a difference to this previously creatively-starved Arsenal side.

“He’s a game-changer simply because of the way he plays in midfield,” said Wright. “He’s somebody that does not pass the ball sideways.

“He wants to pass it forward and that gets everybody forward.

“If you have got players like Emile Smith Rowe and Saka in an area where they can both pick up the ball, progress with the ball and run with it then all of a sudden you have their defenders running backwards.

“You have people starting to make runs and you are starting to create, which we weren’t doing a few weeks back.”

Arsenal are now on a bit of a roll and they face familiar opposition at the weekend in Manchester United.

Back in November, when Arteta’s side secured a 1-0 win at Old Trafford, many fans thought that the club was on the start of something special.

But it’s the hope that kills you and Arsenal fans seriously suffered during those following months.

However, Manchester United fans, who were sitting top of the table not so long ago, suffered the defeats of all defeats last night when bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United romped up to the theatre of dreams to make it the theatre of nightmares.