For much of the season, Thomas Partey has been the best defensive midfielder in the league.

A one man wrecking ball, he has been doing the job of two-me in the middle of the park.

His dominance has allowed Mikel Arteta to push Granit Xhaka further forward, creating overloads higher up the field.

Partey is not only a disrupter, he is also a good passer. Able to take the ball off the defence in tight spaces and pick out a pass. He quickly turns defence into attack.

Arsenal have reportedly been nursing him through injury issues this season, trying to keep him to playing once a week. And this has potentially caught up on him these last few games.

The Partey we saw against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton was certainly not the Partey we have seen for the rest of the season.

He looks slower, both in body and thought. More passes getting misplaced. More poor decisions made. He looks a shadow of the man that drove us into a position to be champions.

With Partey clearly not at 100%, we have struggled.

7 goals conceded in 3 games is not the sign of champions. And whilst I am not blaming Partey, his drop in form has allowed our defence to be got at much easier.

Last season, our fight for the top 4 came to an end due to Partey’s injury. This season we have stumbled due to his loss of form – probably caused by injury.

Partey can not be relied upon. This is the first season since joining us that he has started more tHan 24 games. He has now started 26 out of a possible 43.

You can not expect to win trophies when one of your best players, and potentially your most important, is only starting 60% of the games.

It is not easy replacing someone like Partey.

We tried in January to sign Moises Caicedo, but couldn’t get the huge deal over the line. In the summer, Declan Rice will be our number one target. The only other man in the Premier League that can do what Partey does is Rodri. And I doubt Man City will sell us him!

It is important that we keep the core group of players together into next season. But we also need to build on the team and the squad. Solving the Partey problem might not improve us in individual games, but will improve us over the course of the season.

Declan Rice incoming….

Keenos

Some strange news this week was Arsenal physio Simon Murphy joining Thomas Partey in Ghana.

Rumours circulated as to why he was there. Was it as chaperone, was it to help Partey manage his injury? Or maybe Murphy just loves jollof rice and was using the international break for a bit of a holiday.

Pictures then dropped of Murphy in Ghanaian training gear.

A lot has been said over the last 12 months about the small things Mikel Arteta is doing to try and help Arsenal win the league title.

Having “You’ll never walk alone” blast out in training in the lead up to Liverpool, plying crowd noise through speakers at London Colney and having DJ on the sidelines trying to distract the players are just a few of things.

Recently he took a replica Clock End clock to Fulham. And numerous other stories have risen about how Arteta has tried to make away games seem more homely.

These are all what is called marginal gains. A tactic made famous by British Cycling’s David Brailsford.

“The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together” Brailsford explained in 2012.

Brailsford’s 1% factor has since transferred across to other sports and the business world.

Arteta is one that clearly looks for an marginal gain, and sending Murphy to Ghana is an example.

You always worry when players go on international duty to 3rd world nations where they do not have the same level of fitness, nutrition and medical care expertise as Arsenal.

Too often teams have seen players return from the African Cup of Nations overweight, injured or unfit.

It is actually a surprise that teams have not “loaned” their physios to the likes of Ghana earlier.

With half the first team squad away on international duty, Arsenal’s physios will have less workload over the next two weeks, so it makes a lot of sense to ship one (or two) of them off to help out those lesser nations whom our key players play for.

Arsenal have done a great job nurturing Partey’s body through this season, and our title hopes really do rest in his hands, his body.

Partey staying fit dramatically increases our chance of winning the league. Murphy being out in Ghana dramatically increases the chance of Partey returning fit.

Could we have benefitted over the years sending a physio to Gabon to be with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Chile to be with Alexis Sanchez?

Arsenal might become trendsetters here – I am not sure if other clubs have done similar.

It would not be a huge surprise if club physios joined up with lesser nations in the future.

Manchester City physios in Algeria or Norway. Arsenal in Ghana. Liverpool in Egypt or Scotland.

And those nations will also benefit greatly having some of the best physios, medial staff or nutritionists join them for a couple of weeks. Teaching their home grow staff a thing or two. Everyone wins.

Now we just need Partey to return fully fit and ready for Leeds!

Keenos