Arsenal’s deadline day signing Thomas Partey is the perfect player to reinvigorate Mikel Arteta’s midfield engine room, according to the Ghanaian’s international team-mate Andy Yiadom.
The 27-year-old completed his move to the Gunners on Monday after the FA Cup holders decided to activate his £45million release clause, much to the disgust of Atletico.
Arteta had been desperate to strengthen his midfield during the transfer window and although he retained the services of Dani Ceballos, who returned for another year-long loan spell from Real Madrid, he had become heavily reliant on the likes of Granit Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny in the early weeks of the season.
Partey is recognised nominally as a defensive midfielder, but Yiadom believes he is capable of starring in a more advanced position and offer some of the creativity that another of Arteta’s targets, Houssem Aouar, would have done had he not remained at Lyon.
‘He grabs the game by the scruff of the neck,’ Yiadom told Goal. “He has a lot of qualities.
“When I’ve watched Atletico, it does seem like he sits there and does the dogged work, but when he is away with us he has a lot more to his game than that.
‘I think his record in terms of goals for Ghana (10 goals in 27 games) proves that because every time I seem to go away with Ghana he scores, so he has got that attacking threat as well.
Yiadom added: ‘He’s athletic, he’s really good on the ball, he’s skilful and he’s got a great set-piece in him.
‘But personally, and this is going off what I see from him in training and also the games that he has played for Ghana, I think he has the attributes for the No.8 role and to be more of a box-to-box midfielder.
‘Atletico obviously are really rigid and extremely disciplined, but having trained with him, I don’t see him as a player who just dogs about and protects the defence – he has got a lot more quality to him than that.’
