Tim Sherwood has claimed that Thomas Partey ‘always lets you down’ alongside his Arsenal teammate, Granit Xhaka, as he told Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports (22/01/22 at 1:05 pm).
On Thursday night, Partey was sent off as Arsenal were knocked out of the League Cup at the hands of Liverpool.
In the first leg, Xhaka was shown a straight red for his wild challenge on Diogo Jota, as Partey followed suit in the second leg.
Whilst Xhaka’s was a straight red, Partey came off the bench to receive two separate yellow cards for his side.
There could be some element of excuse for Partey because he had just got off the plane after returning from Africa Cup of Nations duty with Ghana.
Therefore, someone like Mikel Arteta should also take the blame for throwing the player on, in such a situation, when Arsenal were also chasing the game.
Nonetheless, ex-Premier League winning captain, Sherwood, clearly isn’t a fan of either Partey or Xhaka.
“They have some fantastic young players there,” said Sherwood. “They need some responsible individuals to help them out. Someone to look up to.
“These boys are experienced in age. Some of the decisions they are making, regarding letting the team down and going into tackles. Reckless challenges.
“I think Mikel has done well with the younger players. But I think he needs to find some reliable citizens to go in there with them and learn from.
“At the moment, I think they are decent enough players, Partey and Xhaka, but they are always going to let you down. Keep you awake as a manager.”
The midfield problems just stack up for Arsenal because both Xhaka and Partey are suspended, whilst Mohamed Elneny is still on Africa Cup of Nations duty.
It has to be questioned why the club didn’t delay allowing someone like Ainsley Maitland-Niles to leave on loan.
The most ironic thing is that he was crying out for game time and regular minutes in north London.
Yet, as soon as he left, that’s when he would have been able to earn those regular minutes with the players unavailable due to suspension and AFCON duty.
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