Thomas Partey had a cracking game for Arsenal last night.
The Gunners produced a stellar defensive performance in winning 1-0 away to in-form Chelsea, who are in the Champions League final.
And so much of the victory was down to Partey’s brilliant midfield display.
The former Atletico Madrid powerhouse recovered the ball well and shielded his four team-mates in defence very efficiently and consistently.
But the performance was a tiny bit marred by his yellow card in the final minutes.
In a rare turn of events, Arsenal found themselves deep in Chelsea’s half during stoppage time but instead of going to the corner flag, Partey stayed in the box and was ultimately booked for simulation.
And Chris Sutton, speaking during commentary on Optus Sport, claims that it was simply a ‘woeful’ dive from the Ghana international.
“That was woeful from Thomas Partey. Wondered whether he’d go into the corner, drove into the box and throws himself to the floor. Quite right Andre Marriner.”
Was it a dive? Absolutely.
But it was such a poor effort that it demonstrates Partey clearly has no idea how to deceive the referee, illustrating how rare his attempted deception is and therefore it’s difficult to be overly harsh.
The Arsenal midfielder could and should have simply ran the ball into the corner, like Sutton said, but the goal was ultimately to kill time and Partey still managed to do that.
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