Thomas Partey has found himself reduced to a place on the bench in recent games, with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta instead turning to Jorginho to step into central midfield
Thomas Partey has insisted he is happy to see Jorginho take his place in the Arsenal starting line-up because it means there is a healthy competition for places.
Partey has spent much of the campaign as one of the Gunners’ first-choice midfielders, alongside Martin Odegaard and Granit Xhaka. But following a downturn in performances, boss Mikel Arteta opted to bench the Ghanian international in favour of Jorginho.
The Italian joined the Gunners from Chelsea in the January transfer window to add depth to Arteta’s squad. But he has now edged out Partey in the selection battle, with a man of the match performance in the win over Newcastle making it increasingly hard to drop him.
Despite a tough battle ahead to reclaim his place for the final three games of the season, Partey is showing no signs of frustration. Instead, he believes Jorginho’s elevation to the starting line-up is evidence of Arsenal’s strengths.
“I have always had competition, which is good for me. I enjoy it. I am really happy for him because for a couple of weeks he was the best at training and then at the end you see that in the game,” he told the Evening Standard.
“I am really happy for him and also happy that every player is ready to step in, so nobody is able to sleep. I think it is good and I hope everyone in that position will be ready to step in when they have the chance.
“The purpose of the club is to create competition and that helps the club to grow more, and also pushes us to be able to give our best in the game. Anytime you have good competition, with no problems, it is the best way to achieve what you want to achieve.”
Arsenal host Brighton on Sunday needing to win to keep pace with Manchester City at the top of the table. But Partey believes the Seagulls are vulnerable and the competition for places in Arteta’s team can push them to succeed.
“The competition is very good as anytime you don’t do well, someone can take your place. It pushes every player to be on top, so I think you have more chance of getting the best out of every player with rotation,” he added to Arsenal’s club media.
“We have to stick together and put our minds on one objective. In football, you have to always be ready to be at the top and I think the mentality of this squad is that we have to try and finish as high as possible.
““You can see [Brighton] play good football and their mentality is strong. They never give up. I think it will be a very difficult game because they want to keep the ball, and we want to keep the ball so we have to be good at doing that and stronger in recovering the ball and keeping it.
“You’ll have to see after the game how we will try to hurt them but we are training a lot on that. Every team that is good have their weaknesses but we will try and explore that, play as we know how to play and we’ll be able to beat them.”
