Press conference

‘Partey is frustrated, he wants to be important'

It has not gone exactly to plan for Thomas Partey since signing for us back in October.

There was huge excitement at the addition of the Ghana international, but a string of injuries have restricted his game time - with the latest being a hamstring issue picked up at Aston Villa.

 

“He was devastated, we were all devastated because we know the importance of Thomas and we haven’t had him since we signed him, we haven’t had him in three games consecutively,” Mikel Arteta said.

 

“I think he has only played 90 minutes once since he has come back from injury, so it is a big blow for us but he is adapting to the league, he has been very unlucky as well.

 

“He is very frustrated because he is a very competitive guy who wants to feel important and be important for the team and at the moment the injuries are restricting a lot of game time for him.

 

“He felt something during the game [at Villa Park] and we didn’t think it was too bad but after the scan looked a little bit worse. He won’t be available to play against Leeds and we will see how it evolves in the next two days but it is a muscular issue.”

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