Arteta did little to shed light on Partey’s potential stay beyond his contract expiry at the end of the campaign.
Certainly a majority of Arsenal fans will be in agreement with a lot of positive things concerning the Ghanaian international this season. Firstly it will be widely agreed upon that he is having the best season of his Arsenal career since his £45million move from the Spanish capital in the Covid hit summer of 2020.
Thomas Partey is a player that will be firmly in a lot of gooners top three performers of this campaign, he has been terrific not only in the middle of the park but also at times when he has deputized at right-back. All of this has been made possible by the absence of a rather telling factor that has been a menace to him in his time with the Gunners with this being nothing other than injuries.
He has greatly suffered with recurring injuries in his four year stay with us. Prior to this campaign, the only season in which he found a bit of respite from it was in the 2022/23 campaign in which he went on to make 33 appearances in the PL, 40 when counting in all competitions. His crazy sudden withdrawal from yesterday’s game against West Ham may have given us pause for thought, but his 18 appearances for us this season means he has only missed one previous game for us, with this coming against Bolton Wanderers a while ago. This also means that he is hopefully on his way to smashing his previous record of appearances for us in a campaign.
Those two reasons (his performances and injury record) have sparked debates among the Arsenal faithful this season. With his contract expiring in the summer, it is still yet undecided unanimously among gooners on whether the club should extend his current deal beyond next summer.
The reason why this is even a debate is because of his age, he will be 32 when his contract expires which you can imagine will be a big hindrance to a potential new deal. Handing out fairly lengthy contracts to players in their twilight came back to haunt us in the past with a few case studies being Aubameyang recently and Mesut Özil of course. With his current form, it remains to be seen whether the club will be tempted to extend, but according to Arteta recently, talks have yet to be had by the club and player.
In his pre match presser ahead of the West Ham game, when asked on whether there has been discussions for a new contract with the player, he told the Arsenal Media; “We will have the right time to discuss this situation. He’s showing consistency at the highest level, again because his availability and the way he feels physically is allowing him to do that and I’m pleased with that.”
This just shows that regardless of his performances, it will still be a tough decision for the Gunners. His contract would’ve been extended a while back if it wasn’t for his age at the end of his contract. And obviously Arteta is right to not have talks until the end of the season, as yesterday’s muscle injury could turn out to be serious so it is better that we wait and see how his whole season pans out.
BENJAMIN KENNETH.
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