Thomas Partey must show he can still compete at Arsenal

Arsenal’s squad includes players who are in or near their prime. Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz are all 25, on the cusp of their prime. Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, William Saliba and Jurrien Timber are 22 or 23, with bright futures ahead of them.

The club’s vision is for all these players to grow and develop together, reaching their peaks in a glorious crescendo of footballing talent. This sense of collective journey is perhaps the most striking aspect of Arsenal’s recent rise. Indeed, it is such a dominant theme that any player not part of the same group now increasingly feels like an outsider.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In the case of Jorginho, 32, his added experience and wisdom is a big part of his value to the club. He’s almost a player-coach these days, guiding his teammates through games and offering solutions to problems he’s seen before.

But in the case of Thomas Partey, the only other player over 30 in Arteta’s squad, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Arsenal are going one way and he’s going the other. If most of Arsenal’s players are in their prime, Partey has to prove that he’s not out of his prime.

Against Wolves on Saturday, Partey produced moments of game-changing class from the base of midfield, the kind of moments he has provided so regularly in the 2022-23 season, when he was arguably the Premier League’s leading central midfielder in the first half of the campaign.

But it wasn’t the first time there were moments when Partey looked worryingly unwell.

In a bad spell for Arsenal after the break, when Wolves were dominant and repeatedly came close to scoring, Partey struggled terribly to find his passing range. Behind him, Saliba also lost his composure.

With Saliba, this was highly unusual. With Partey, however, it was what many Arsenal fans have come to fear. During the club’s pre-season tour, in a defeat to Liverpool, Partey was noticeably slower when trying to close down spaces in midfield. He looked, as he did in the second half against Wolves, like a player whose body wasn’t quite doing what his brain was asking.

Between the 55th and 74th minutes, during a period of the match when Wolves largely had the upper hand, Partey gave up possession three times in his own half. Arsenal were fortunate that those errors were not punished.

Asked about Partey and those issues, Mikel Arteta admitted: “Yes, well, we had certain problems, especially in the second half with certain giveaways. It’s also part of the game, and things we can do better to be more consistent, more sure, more goal-oriented and dominate the game more. We will improve.”

There is a clear reason why Partey may have lost some of his old oomph. His fitness problems have been numerous and in some cases serious in recent years. Last season he did not play a single game for Arsenal between early October and early March due to a thigh problem that required surgery.

That injury added to the feeling, for much of last season, that Partey had become Arsenal’s forgotten man. He was restricted to just nine Premier League starts, while the arrival of Rice meant there was a new midfielder in town. In the minds of many Arsenal fans, Partey had become old news.

Still, it is clear that Partey, in Arteta’s eyes at least, remains a key player in this Arsenal squad. At the end of last season, when the title race against Manchester City was at its most stressful, Partey returned to form and started all five games.

It was the ultimate demonstration of Arteta’s continued faith in the Ghana international and his blend of physical strength and technical quality. When Partey is fit, Rice plays further forward. It is the £105m record signing, Rice, who is being asked to change to accommodate Partey. Not the other way around.

There is a limit to how long such an approach can last, however, if Partey cannot return to his former physical form. The clock is ticking for the 31-year-old, who has a year left on his contract, and it is pertinent that Arsenal are closing in on the signing of Real Sociedad midfielder Mikel Merino.

The Spaniard is more of a box-to-box player than a holding midfielder, but his arrival, if a deal can finally be done, would only add to the feeling that Partey’s status as a key player is under serious threat. As the Arsenal train continues to rumble on, Partey must show he can still keep up.

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