Thomas Partey injury issues now a major problem for Arsenal?

Thomas Partey was the saving grace for the Arsenal midfield, but as time goes on, the Ghanaian is spending more time in the treatment room than on the pitch.

When Arsenal signed Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid in a €50 million (£45.4 million) move, many thought the Gunners’ midfield woes were saved…and to an extent, they were.

When on the pitch, Partey was masterful. He controlled the tempo of games and distributed to his teammates with incredible progressive passing. His ability to shrug off physical challenges was sublime, and he even got on the scoresheet occasionally.

But the midfielder has struggled to get on the pitch since arriving in north London. Already this season, Partey has missed four league games and two of Arsenal’s three Champions League games.

Coming on for a 15-minute cameo against Manchester City, in a game that Arsenal would win thanks to Partey’s long ball that found Takehiro Tomiyasu and would end up with Gabriel Martinelli scoring the game-winner, some thought the midfield star was back.

Not so fast.

In the lead-up to Arsenal’s third Champions League game against Sevilla, there was a thought that Partey would start in the heart of the midfield, but as it turns out, injury has struck again.

This time, a muscle issue kept him out of the game completely.

"“Unfortunately it’s a muscle injury. We don’t know the extent of it – a big miss for us,” Arteta said post-game on TNT Sports."

As the Gunners now get to work to prepare to host the winless Sheffield United at the Emirates on Saturday, there is still a huge question mark over Partey’s fitness…again.

To show how his injury issues have mounted, from 2016 through to 2019 with Atletico Madrid, Partey missed a total of seven games and totaled just 35 days of missed time per transfermarkt.com.

But now this is where it gets ugly…really ugly.

Since arriving at Arsenal in 2020, Thomas Partey has missed a total of 45 games for the Gunners and his national team, which adds up to 284 days missed through injury.

Partey has only managed four league games this season along with his Community Shield appearance. Last season, the midfielder only played 40 games across all competitions (33 in the league), and the year before (2021/22), he played only 26 games in all competitions.

Luckily, Arsenal signed Declan Rice to be the midfield anchor, as right now, Partey isn’t reliable enough to be on the pitch consistently, and Rice is proving to be everything Partey isn’t right now.

While the Gunners’ medical room puts in the overtime to get Partey back on the field, the panic button in Arteta’s office isn’t getting gently tapped; it’s getting bludgeoned.