Thomas Partey didn’t have a great game for Arsenal last night.
Well, nobody in red played particularly well, but Partey, a £45 million signing from Atletico Madrid in October, was the man supposed to give Arsenal a bit of added steel in midfield.
But there wasn’t much of anything positive from Partey as the Gunners got knocked out of the Europa League by Villarreal at the semi-final stage.
For such a big-money signing, the Ghana international was very poor and didn’t exactly seem to even know what his job was, for large periods.
And Steve Nicol, speaking to ESPN, claims the former Atletico powerhouse was ‘bang average’ on the night.
He said: “Thomas Partey I thought would be fantastic. For the past two or three seasons we’ve spoken about how Arsenal have had no guts, no drive. But you know what, he looks like an Arsenal player now – a bang-average Arsenal player from the past two or three seasons.”
Partey is anything but a bang-average footballer but he’s been playing like it.
He’s had three separate injuries already since joining Arsenal last year and although they haven’t helped, they’re not to blame for his current form.
He has produced some barnstorming performances for Arsenal, like the one at Old Trafford last November, but he, like so many of his teammates, is dogged by inconsistency and whether it’s under Mikel Arteta or not, he simply must improve next year.
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