Howdy folks and welcome to another Arsenaless weekend. They really do suck, don’t they? International weekend’s can be a blessing and a curse. If your team is having a shocker it proves welcome respite from the stress of knowing that you don’t have to fall into a football pit of despair when your team plays. Conversely, when your team is on form and playing well, it feels like somewhat of a momentum crusher.

And that’s where we are today because Arsenal’s good form – Liverpool game aside – has brought with it new found hope of the direction of travel within the club right now. Everyone – almost – who has a vested interested and love for The Arsenal is all in the same positive place and although it’s been a wonderfully sunny week here in London, that sun feels like it’s been shining all the more brightly as a result of Mikel Arteta and the team he has developed.

Central to that is of course a few key players who are really hitting form at the right time and today I thought I’d pen some thoughts on Thomas Partey. I think it’s mainly because I don’t usually wax lyrical about one specific player and so when we get these international breaks and the natural lull that occurs as a result of it, it gives me more of a chance to reflect on players, results, form, or specifics about Arsenal, rather than just what has happened over the last 24 hours and what I think about it.

So, to Thomas Partey, who I think we can all agree has been a different gravy type of player since 2022 kicked off. He started it at the AFCON and so we missed him for most of the first month and then when he did finally get back for the Liverpool game his cameo was hardly stellar in getting himself sent off. But his form this calendar year has been imperious and I for one am thoroughly enjoying watching him play. I love the way he receives the ball; he has so much strength and poise, but his balance is often immaculate and it is that balance that allows him to shift his body weight in different directions to receive the ball, carry it a few yards, etc. But even then, it’s one thing to be able to be great at getting possession and keeping it for a few seconds, but what separates good players from great players is whether they have something else in their locker. And Partey does. His passing range is phenomenal and he is a player whom you just know that when those Arsenal teammates get him the ball, they know he is unlikely to mess up his next move. OF course he isn’t perfect, he’s a human after all, but when Partey gets it I instantly find myself with a little more ease about my mind, which is because you know in his current form he’s going to 95 times out of 100 find the right next ball.

We are certainly benefitting from that and none more so than the likes of Odegaard, who knows that he can release the ball, find space and Partey will deliver the ball back to him if he is in a good position to set up a move. Partey’s position at the base of our midfield has been brilliant and I think back to when we first signed him and how he had one or two games where he was isolated on his own; we often wondered what we were doing by expecting him to do everything in that part of the pitch on his own and that it was a mistake to put such a burden on him. But now he is flourishing and the tweak to the system – which see’s Xhaka a little further forward able to receive the ball from Partey so that the pass from Partey is in more of a diagonal position rather than a square or forward position in 90 degree angles, has opened up passing channels for which Partey is duly using to our advantage.

Of course he cannot shoot for toffee, we all know and joke about that, but who cares? If Thomas Partey stays fit and plays like that for us for the rest of this season and in to future seasons, I really couldn’t give a monkey’s if he never scored for The Arsenal again, because for what he is delivering in the middle of the park for us right now, we are more than capable of other players stepping up and getting goals. And that speaks volumes to the mentality of this team, because it is about the collective rather than the individual. No need for stats kings in this side. We don’t need the top scorer in the league and in a way I’ve always preferred to see a few guys on double figures than one guy being our focal point for goals. The risk is spread and I think Thomas Partey’s form and position in the team has enabled other players to take up that mantle of scoring goals for us. Of course we have to defend in a unit and of course that still means the likes of Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Saka and Odegaard need to drop back when we are without the ball and facing sustained pressure, but Partey’s presence in the middle of the pitch is giving us a little bit more of a safety blanket over the defensive actions in the team.

But he’s not a defensive midfielder. I love players like Partey because they can’t be shoe-horned in to a specific role. It’s not Championship Manager and Thomas Partey can’t just be defined as your classic ‘DM’ defensive midfielder. He is not a box-to-box player either; he is by his own design and he does different actions – defending, covering space, winning tackles, playing passes through the lines, etc – in his own way. And by seeing him doing this stuff I as a long-time football fan, learn new things about the game. That’s why it is such a joy to watch.

But he needs to stay fit. we NEED him to remain fit and as he sets off for Ghana this weekend and early next week, the hope is that he doesn’t pick up any kind of knock because if we lose him for any period of time, it will have a big impact on our fight for the top four.

Fingers crossed he’s ok though and fingers crossed he can remain ok for the rest of this season. We’ve already been deprived of him for long enough in his Arsenal career to date, I just hope we can avoid being deprived of him much more.

Catch you all tomorrow.