It’s Partey Time For Arsenal

The transfer window closed last night and with it the ability for clubs to improve their squads from without. There is still the option of moves within the English leagues, but moves to and from all other leagues are finished. It looked like Arsenal would miss out on their targets as deadline day approached, but they pulled a rabbit out of the hat just in time.

We had spent most of that window chasing Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid, but it seemed we were unwilling to pay the release clause of €50 million. If reports are to be believed Lucas Torreira had been told by Atletico that he had been signed on loan from Arsenal to play alongside Partey in their midfield, but he would have had to stay at Arsenal to do so now. I wish Torreira no ill will and I wasn’t particularly pleased that we loaned him out, but Partey is definitely an upgrade on him.

Our midfield needed a player of his calibre and I have no doubt his addition will help Mikel Arteta to mould the team in the way he wants. Again there are reports of Diego Simone being particularly unhappy with Partey’s last minute departure and I can imagine how we would feel if one of our best players did one at the very last minute. I’m not too bothered about how if affects Atletico though as long as it helps to make us a better team.

All in all it’s been a pretty good transfer window for Arsenal with Partey added to the arrivals of Willian on a free transfer and Gabriel Magalhaes. Both of those players added strength in positions where we really needed it and Partey should be the next piece of the Arteta jigsaw. There’s still a good bit more to go, but it’s difficult to deny that all the signs point to us moving in the right direction.

Perhaps the biggest deal of the transfer window for us was the manager convincing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to sign a new contract. If he had decided to leave I can’t see where we could have got a replacement of his quality or how we could have afforded one if he was available. Retaining his services must certainly have a positive affect on potential purchases when they see a player of his calibre at the club and it seems the manager is becoming a bit of a draw himself too.

We probably could have done with moving on a few of the players who are surplus to requirements, but it seems Sead Kolasinac, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and even Mesut Ozil will be with us for a while yet. Both Kolasinac and Sokratis looked like they might be on their way, but Ozil has absolutely no intention of going anywhere despite obviously not being in the manager’s plans. It’s an awful shame to have a player earning £350,000 a week not participating at all, but there doesn’t seem to be a way out of it any more.

This season has started pretty well with three wins from four games even if two of those wins were against teams who still haven’t got a point between them after four games. The other win against West Ham didn’t seem like much at the time, but their subsequent results might just put our win against them in a better light. So far out only defeat came away to the reigning champions who are favourites to retain their title despite their absolute hammering by Aston Villa on Sunday.

Unfortunately we have to undergo another annoying international break before we get to play again. When we come back Arsenal have a very tough run of games with trips to both Manchester clubs either side of a home game against Leicester. As bad as both Manchester teams have been it’s still been six years since we won away to any of the rest of the “big six”and beating either of them will not be easy. If we can come through those three games with more than three points I think it has to been seen as something positive and it should keep us in contention at the right end of the table.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.