Is it a Parteta or an Artetey? Arteta speaks out on Partey’s future at Arsenal…

First off, I apologise for the clumsy portmanteaux. How does one blend two words into one? I’d ask Lewis Carroll, but he’s been pushing up daisies for almost as long as Tottenham have been chasing trophies. 

Zing. Anyway, ahead of our penultimate clash against Man U, there’s been some talk around Thomas’s future at the club. Should we be selling both him and Xhaka in the same window? What’s to be done with an ageing player whose injuries become an increasing concern? How many rhetorical questions can one blogger pose?

The signings of Havertz and Rice threaten Partey with one of the ultimate insults. He’s been made redundant. Superfluous. Obsolete. For as vital as he’s been to our recent resurrection, I have to admit to being just a bit underwhelmed. 

At a risk of invoking that hoary old “heir to Vieira” trope, I expected Partey to be a bit more swash-buckling, a bit more…visceral and eviscerating. Don’t get me wrong – he’s been quite good. He just hasn’t been quite as good as I’d led myself to believe. I don’t think I alone in feeling that.

Arteta, perhaps playing the consummate PR man, has been a bit more sanguine regarding Partey’s future with the club. Speaking to a variety of outlets, here’s what the gaffer had to say:

Every time I spoke to him, his will is to stay with us. For me there’s nothing there at all.

They (Rice and Partey) can play together. That was in my plans. If you want to improve the squad, you need players that can improve the squad and players that can play together.

There was some fear around the notion that selling Xhaka and Partey in the same window would expose us, as if the Xhaka/Partey pivot was, well, pivotal to our success. That may well be true, but, as it stands, we have a 4-3-3 with RIce prowling behind Havertz and Ødegaard, and that has to set a few pulses racing. When needed, we could revert to some kind of combination of Rice, Partey, and Jorginho as a more-defensive set-up, with Ødegaard and Havertz (and Smith Rowe?) probing and prowling behind the purring attack that consists of Martinelli, 

Jesus, and Saka.The rumours around Partey moving to Juventus or to Saudi Arabia probably won’t die down until the window closes. That’s just the way this ecosystem works. Until and unless Juventus or one of these nouveau riche Saudi Arabian clubs backs down or doubles down, Partey is ours to enjoy. Let’s just leave it at that until further notice…