Thomas Partey Visibly Disgruntled at Arsenal Tendencies

Thomas Partey made his full Premier League debut on Sunday.

Coming three days after a superb rendition of his talents against Rapid Vienna, expectancy of similar elegance in the heart of midfield against Leicester was an almost foregone conclusion for Arsenal fans.

Flanked either side by Dani Ceballos and Granit Xhaka – at least on paper anyway – Partey had a supporting cast who could accentuate his already glowing skill set. Producing an array of neat touches in that first half, the overall brilliance of his display in Austria was being repeated once with niceties across the pitch that had Arsenal ticking over.

If you were rating him, he was on course for a solid eight. Having seemingly settled in well with his co-stars both in the training ground and dressing room, that opening 25 minutes were a fine example of what he could bring to the side both defensively and progressively.

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As the clock ticked down, such moments appeared only in occasional smatterings. By the time the second half was in full flow, his rating had dropped, his influence waned. Many will have dissected the statistics from the Emirates defeat and pointed to Arsenal’s tendency to build from the back, totally bypassing Partey.

The Ghanaian received the ball just eight times apiece from Gabriel Magalhaes and Xhaka, three times from Shkodran Mustafi and just twice from David Luiz. This is no lack of faith in Partey from his teammates, it’s demands placed on them by the manager. Plans that fell horribly flat.

No surprise from the above, then, that Partey made only 54 passes compared to Xhaka’s 98.

Arsenal tried this method on repeat like a broken record. Each time the same end result, accompanied by a visibly disgruntled Partey. Upset with not seeing enough of the ball, he called upon his new red and white companions to involve play through him, but to no avail.

Bad news, right? Yes, and no.

Yes, because the lack of involvement that Partey saw with each passing minute is a bemusing strategy considering the lengths taken to acquire his signature. The most complete midfielder in the squad left to occupy what resembled no man’s land was like asking him to add soft harmonies to a Motörhead track. Wasted may be a strong word, but he was heavily underused.

What’s good about that is he made his feelings clear. Very clear.

Arms aloft at every pass that took a scenic detour en route to his feet and audible qualms with his new squad members when they sought out the Swiss without a moment’s hesitation. This is what we want to see. Well, we don’t literally, we want him in possession, but you catch my drift.

Demanding the ball, his intentions were to push up the pitch.

All the talk of Patrick Vieira comparisons are not unfounded. How do you intend of providing Arsenal-based evidence to such claims, however, if he isn’t given the means with which to bruise his way through the lines?

This wasn’t the midfield three we expected in application when the teams were announced  – it’s not mobile enough either side of Partey to be able to provide balance in defensive transitions – but there is scope for him to express himself more freely if his own needs are tended to.

Acting as a passenger for large periods of Sunday – not of his own doing –  slotting him into a side who are themselves transitioning from one brand of football to another will require more than a handful of training sessions. We can be sure of that much.

Likewise, we can be equally confident with the idea that we’ll not see the best of him when Arsenal are in possession when he himself is not contributing to the phases. A tiresome, predictable format persisted on Sunday with Partey left to watch on detached from its repetitiveness.

He wasn’t given chance to rectify the stagnation. He really should have.