Gary Neville has said that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will play Thomas Partey in midfield against Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United next weekend.
The former Manchester United defender and Sky Sports pundit has said on his podcast that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will not deploy Thomas Partey at right-back against the Red Devils.
Partey is a defensive midfielder by trade, but the £160,000-a-week (SalarySport) Ghana international is being used at right-back at the moment.
Arteta is playing Kai Havertz in midfield despite the Germany international forward struggling to make an impact.
Thomas Partey backed to play in midfield for Arsenal vs Manchester United
Arsenal will take on Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium in North London in the Premier League next weekend.
And Neville believes that Partey will move back into midfield and will play alongside Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard.
Neville said: “I would expect next week that Mikel Arteta is going to end that experiment and that he is going to probably go with a solid back-four with four defenders, maybe move Partey into midfield along with Rice and maybe Odegaard.”
We think that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta needs to move Thomas Partey into midfield against Manchester United.
United have a very strong midfield and will be determined to win the Premier League game.
While Partey has not exactly been bad at right-back for the Gunners, he is better off playing in his natural position in defensive midfield.
Arsenal will need Partey’s expertise in that position to win the midfield battle and eventually pick up all three points from the Premier League match against United.
Partey has made 84 appearances in the Premier League so far in his career.
The defensive midfielder has scored five goals and given three assists in those games.
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