Losing Partey for the season was a disaster, we effectively lost our entire midfield engine room (Partey/Xhaka) due to injury & stupidity & only buying the excellent Rice covered that up. Jorginho is a fine backup option but I think it is underestimated what Xhaka did last season, it is no coincidence that he turns up at Leverkusen & plays a part in them winning the league.
We are not a better team than last season when Saliba & Partey were properly fit, defensively we look better because Saliba/Rice have avoided injury & our young players have matured/got used to each other. We are worse in attack, less slick, & that is partly down to losing Xhaka. Whilst Jorginho has been good & Havertz has got better it doesn’t make up for Xhaka’s loss.
Of course there are other factors like lack of rotation & sidelining of ESR but similar things happened last season so even out !
Selling Xhaka : Dumb & Dumber
posted 1 week, 6 days ago
comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 30 minutes ago
Selling Xhaka over Partey just didn't make sence.
Xhaka was arguably one of the best MF players in the league. Bulletproof in terms of injuries.
Someone that can easily play 40 games a season
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Won't be many takers for a rapist on trial
posted 1 week, 6 days ago
comment by vidicthelegend VIVA LA REVOLUTION (U8735)
posted 2 hours, 31 minutes ago
Should’ve lost Partey for a lot longer than a season after what he’s done. No idea how it’s been buried
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You seem to know more the police and cps. Maybe take your evidence in to them.
posted 1 week, 6 days ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 hour, 1 minute ago
comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 30 minutes ago
Selling Xhaka over Partey just didn't make sence.
Xhaka was arguably one of the best MF players in the league. Bulletproof in terms of injuries.
Someone that can easily play 40 games a season
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Won't be many takers for a rapist on trial
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Partey is neither, so not sure the point being made?
posted 1 week, 6 days ago
comment by Chris H (U15205)
posted 2 hours, 19 minutes ago
comment by Bats Uncensored (U18355)
posted 8 minutes ago
We are a better team than last season. We are on course for a higher points haul even after competing in the CL.
But yea I do agree selling Xhaka was dumb. Didn’t need hindsight to see it was dumb either. Partey should have been sold even if we knew he would be fit for the season, he is no longer at the required level to play for a team with our ambitions. Hopefully he can meet some Saudi club’s ambitions this summer
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Hmm, as good a season as Xhaka had, he also tailed off towards the end and wanted to go, and not sure if he had another PL season in him at the same level.
The mistake was paying £65m for a completely different, and arguably worse, player in Havertz rather than just buying another box to box mid in the Xhaka mould.
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Yes obviously £65M on Havertz also doesn’t need hindsight to tell you that it was a dumb move. We still should have got rid of Partey last summer though. Xhaka only wanted to leave because we didn’t give him the contract he wanted. Not like he was desperate to leave London or anything, we should have made him stay.
You can question his ability as a footballer because let’s be honest, for most of his time at Arsenal he was garbage but we definitely could have used his leadership qualities, if you listen to Leverkusen players, Xhaka’s experience has been vital this season.
posted 1 week, 6 days ago
Realistically we should have been looking to improve upon Xhaka and I think he knew that and as such wanted to move on.
If Partey had been fit, we'd have had Rice there a lot of the season and it would have been a clear upgrade.
posted 1 week, 6 days ago
In fact Rice did play a lot of the season there and we've generally been a bit better.
Partey would have further improved us, ESR being fit would have also helped.
posted 1 week, 6 days ago
Yea I get that, just think we upgraded on the wrong player. Partey is not good enough and was our highest earner until the new contracts the likes of Ode, Saka and Havertz signed. Thought it made perfect sense to auction him to Saudi’s but instead we decided to sell his more reliable, less rapey midfield partner
posted 1 week, 6 days ago
Yeah I would probably have preferred to move on Partey too. Don't get me wrong, when Partey is fit and on form he's incredible, but he's rarely fit & takes ages to get into form.
Add into that all the stuff around him and the Saudi money being thrown around, it seemed like he should have been the one to go. I guess Xhaka felt his time was up and we wanted to keep some continuity in the MF though.
Might have worked out well if we'd bought better than Havertz in the number 8 role, but then we'd have struggled up front with the injuries we've had there too.
posted 1 week, 6 days ago
Xhaka was here for 7 years and only for one year did he look like a good PL midfielder. I honestly think he never fit into the style of PL. he’s always performed on international stage for his nation, and before in Bundesliga and again now. In Spain or Italy he’d probably be very highly rated.
posted 1 week, 6 days ago
That’s not true, he was good the season before, too, and unlike Partey was available for every match. The fact that his 5 previous seasons were garbage doesn’t mean that his last 2 seasons he was very good and it’s not really a surprise that good form has carried over to his Leverkusen performances. It’s also not a surprise that Partey is never available and has massively declined