“He should be starting every game this season or else, Arsenal don’t even win a spoon, I don’t know why Arteta keeps dropping him to the bench”- Skysport Pundit Patrick Vierra has claimed that £45M Arsenal man MUST be starting every match this season

Pundit claims £45m Arsenal player still should be starting in their best team

Skysport Pundit has admitted that Thomas Partey has to be starting in Mikel Arteta’s strongest Arsenal team.

He was speaking on the Handbrake Off Podcast ahead of this evening’s Carabao Cup tie with Brentford.

He was also reflecting on a North London derby where the honours were shared between Arsenal and Tottenham.

Mikel Arteta is already having to deal with a small injury crisis at the club.

Jurrien Timber has suffered a long-term injury, while in attack Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard are both unavailable.

Another big loss this season has been Thomas Partey, who initially started the season at right-back.

The Ghanaian midfielder’s future at Arsenal looked in doubt after the arrival of Declan Rice.

However, it shows how highly Arteta thinks of the £45m player that he still found a place for him in the team.

Adrian Clarke now thinks Partey has to start in Arsenal’s strongest midfield.

He’s not been convinced by Kai Havertz yet who he believes could be a decent attacking option off the bench.

The German has already lost his place to Fabio Vieira this season, although there is a concern that he can be bullied out of matches as Tottenham tried to do on Sunday.

Clarke says Partey has to start in Arsenal’s strongest midfield

Speaking about the impact Kai Havertz has had at the club so far, Clarke said: “He has accepted in his own head Mikel Arteta that Fabio Vieira has had a better season and that’s why he picked him.

“In this game, I actually thought [Kai] Havertz was quite a bit better than Fabio Vieira.

“I don’t think we should be digging Havertz out for this performance.

“He hasn’t delivered enough but actually I thought he fought quite hard in the game without really impacting it.

“For me, what he’s got to do is be a bit braver, he’s got to take that handbrake off and make more runs into the box. That’s what he’s good at!

“We just talked about the need for having a finisher, a striker, if he joins in as that second striker more often, I think he can be a real impact player.

“It’s not working at the moment, the more I think about it, the more I just see us our best team being [Declan] Rice and [Thomas] Partey as a double with [Martin] Odegaard in front.”

Arteta will be desperate to have Partey back soon and it will be interesting to see if he slots into the Arsenal line-up where Clarke would like him to.

People close to Partey have suggested that he’s considering moving on in January.

It’s unlikely that Arteta will be pleased to sanction a deal unless the finances suit the club.

The balance of the team isn’t quite right at the moment and bringing Partey back into midfield might be the solution to that.