Thomas Partey is Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira one year late

It can become repetitive to eulogize frequently about a player. They can only be made to sound so brilliant. But when they keep turning out imperious performance after imperious performance for Arsenal, the case reopens. It can’t not.

Worth setting out right from the off is that Thomas Partey is not Patrick Vieira. Nor will he ever be. That’s no slight on him, it’s merely fact that nobody ever will be. He stands on a podium of his own with all around him dreaming of even walking in his shadow.

But goodness, Partey has found form that warrants a conversation. Most importantly he’s sustaining it, and while he’ll never be Patrick Vieira, he is becoming this team’s adaptation.

Taking Aston Villa’s midfield to the cleaners in the most recent league outing, the authority he not only exudes but also demands on the pitch is a level few, if any, other midfielders of his ilk can lay claim to in the Premier League.

Thomas Partey is Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira one year late as injuries and mitigating circumstances have hindered this exceptional midfielder

The way Vieira would always have the ball under his control even when it appeared either beyond his reach or caught under is feet is reflected in the Arsenal No. 5. In the way everyone assumed Vieira was a central defender upon his arrival on account of his tall frame and gangly legs, Partey’s physique shouldn’t cater to the elegant strides he take across the turf.

Holding midfielders tend not to be this clean, or inventive, on the ball. His distribution through the lines, or the ones bent out wide for the onrushing Bukayo Saka, come with a technically sublime weight or disguise to them. Like a wide player would chop inside to beat his man, Partey does this with a the tip of his boot at the final second to snap a pass into someone’s path the opposition can’t see let alone react to.

Partey, like Vieira, has deceptively quick feet in tight areas, capable of nipping it off you as cleanly as he can poke it past you. This is all part of exceptional midfield play on display every single week. The system suits him and the personnel complement him. There isn’t another fulcrum operating like him in his country at the minute.

It’s the consistency of these performances – those which have been on a steady incline since he rated his Arsenal displays as a 4/10 – that is reason for the unmistakable similarities to one of the greatest captains English football has ever seen.

The shame of it all, however, is that it didn’t happen sooner. Dashes of his magnificence have been on show across his time in north London, just never with the consistency levels desired. Various mitigating factors have contributed to that, with none more pertinent than the injury setbacks. By the time Partey would have battled his way back to fitness he’d be rocked by another injury, and the process of rebuilding would take place.

There is confidence coursing through his veins to match his fitness. Previously he would struggle to play 90 minutes, and now he’s completing 90 minutes three times in six days with near flawless fluency.

Ever since Vieira departed Arsenal the club have been in search of ‘the new Vieira’. While that tag is cursed from the outset as such a player does not exist, never before has the club come closer than they have with this gliding Ghanaian.

It’s taken a while for him to live up to and even surpass expectation, and while there is some disappointment at that, boisterous performances will grace the Emirates for many years to come. With this kind of form, there is no reason why the Champions League shouldn’t host it either.