Football fanatics worldwide, including punters at Betway, were startled about Arsenal’s latest Premier League catastrophe as they gave away three points at the death to Leicester City when Jamie Vardy was given space and time to get the ball past Bernd Leno after a fixture which lacked creativity and the Gunners failed to capitalize on chances time and time again. Something Mikel Arteta’s side have been lacking for some time now – which is why the exclusion of Mesut Ozil, probably the most talented creative midfielder in world football as of now, has people talking.
Arsenal brought in Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid on the deadline day, a signing which surprised the footballing world especially because the manner in which it was conducted and the money it involved. The Gunner paid Thomas’ release clause of $45 million to La Liga executives on one go, to make sure they had RSVP’d #ParteyTime in North London.
Bringing Thomas Partey is touted perfect for Arsenal, as they are getting a player in his prime who can dominate the midfield singlehandedly. Something we have been missing for sometime now – probably the closest we’d come to filling in for Patrick Vieira. And that’s exactly what Thomas showed in his debut coming on against Manchester City and starting in Europa League against Rapid Vienna. His display against Austrian counterparts was bravoed as the best many have seen in Arsenal colors for a long time.
In fact, Mikel Arteta was full of praise talking about Thomas in his post-match conference, “He looked really solid and really comfortable. I think he held the midfield by himself in the second half when we were a little more open and started to take more chances and attacking certain spaces with some players. But I think he was fantastic tonight and there is much more to come from him.
“But he needs his team-mates around him. It’s not about him. We know that with the price that we paid for him and the profile of the player that he is, that he’s going to have a lot of people looking at him every single game. But this is about the structure we have as a team and the flow, the unity and the cohesion that we need in our team and he is one piece of that and hopefully he’s a big piece.”
But indulging Thomas alongside Granit Xhaka and/or Dani Ceballos doesn’t solve any of creativity problems – it just enlarges it. Partey may be a big piece in Arsenal’s puzzle but that doesn’t mean we ignore another of integral piece in creativity.
At this point, game statistics at Betway English Premier League betting and odds seem to indicate the creative problems at N5 and which is why Arteta’s pursuit for Houssem Aouar seems a one that they missed. Be it Ozil or Aouar or Szoboszlai – Mikel needs to solve this problem soon to make sure nights like Leicester doesn’t happen on consistent intervals.
