My Arsenal Blog

The shocking defeat to Crystal Palace on Monday certainly hurt Arsenal’s chances of securing a place in next season’s Champions League to an extent, but it also brought up a couple of worries of another sort for manager Mikel Arteta.

Nuno Tavares was named to start on the left defensive flank, and even though he can hardy be blamed directly for any of the three goals the Gunners conceded, he arguably could’ve done better for the first two. Kieran Tierney probably would have done better if it had been him, but the Scotsman was left out of the matchday squad with a knee injury he seems to have picked up while representing his country during the latest international break, playing 90 minutes in both friendlies and scoring against Poland.  .......Read more here.....

It’s that time of year when a parade of nations are beginning to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, which takes place this November in Qatar.

There’s a lot to unpack in terms of who’s already qualified and what’s to come but today, we want to focus on Thomas Partey.

Arsenal’s electric midfielder opened the scoring for Ghana last night in their qualifier against Nigeria and in doing so, essentially scored the goal that took them through to the finals.

Ghana missed out on the World Cup in 2018 and will be heading to the big dance for the first time in eight years alongside Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco and Cameroon.  .......Read more here.....

A strong month of action for Arsenal Football Club has created quite the storm for the club and its fanbase with many believing they could be on their way to some pretty big things in the weeks to come. Of course, we can’t go forward without first giving praise to what’s come before, with Arsenal.com announcing that Thomas Partey has been named Player of the Month for February.

Partey was influential in the narrow 1-0 win over Wolves to kickstart the month when, after a period of notable scrutiny with 10 men, Arsenal held on for all three points.  .......Read more here.....

Arsenal will be travelling to Dubai to recharge their batteries by training in warmer weather during the winter break.

The Gunners go into the break on the back of a triple disappointment, a shocking FA Cup exit at the hands of Nottingham Forest, a Carabao Cup semifinal defeat to Liverpool and a goalless draw against relegation-threatened Burnley in the Premier League on Sunday. The latter two were played at the Emirates.

Mikel Arteta’s team obviously need something to lift their spirits ahead of the crucial part of the season, with a return to the Champions League seen as as ultimate goal. The league action resumes on February 10th, when they travel to face Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Molineux.  .......Read more here.....

While many Premier League fans have spoken about the inconvenience of the Africa Cup of Nations, it’s worth noting just how much the competition means to the people across that continent – and beyond.

They want to be able to lift the trophy high for the nation in what is, essentially, a major international tournament.

Unfortunately for Thomas Partey and Ghana, that dream came to an end last night as his side was defeated 3-2 by Comoros on a dramatic evening of action.  .......Read more here.....

The turn of the year is approaching fast. With it comes the January transfer window, and one of the perpetual worries for all club managers – the African Cup of Nations.

The tournament, set to be held in Cameroon, begins on January 9th and ends of February 6th, which means the players representing their countries there will be absent for practically a month. As for Arsenal, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be playing for Gabon, Nicolas Pepe for Ivory Coast, Thomas Partey for Ghana, and Mohamed Elneny for Egypt.  .......Read more here.....

Arsenal were yet again held to a disappointing draw on Monday evening at the Emirates as Crystal Palace managed to overturn the Gunners’ early lead, created by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, through Christian Benteke and Odsonne Edouard, and Alexandre Lacazette eventually salvaged a point with a last-gasp strike. The three defeats with which Mikel Arteta’s team started the season were patched over to an extent with three consecutive triumphs, including the impressive one in the North London Derby, but shadows of old troubles first appeared in a goalless draw away to Brighton and Hove Albion ahead of the international break, and now this. It’s only natural to ask the question of what went wrong this time. In short – almost everything.  .......Read more here.....

Speaking to the press ahead of Arsenal’s encounter with Norwich City on Saturday, manager Mikel Arteta said he wasn’t looking for any excuses for the poor results of the first three Premier League rounds, but he is looking forward to having some players, previously absent, available for selection.

“Well, I’m really looking forward to having everybody available and trying to start the season the way we want,” Arteta said.

“We don’t want to use any excuses. We know how difficult the start was, with injuries, with a lot of COVID issues that we had, and with difficult games we had to play. We have to reset now, and hopefully get everybody back on track, and start winning football games, which is what we have to do.”  .......Read more here.....

Thomas Partey suffered a huge injury blow in the pre-season friendly against Chelsea on Sunday, leaving the pitch after only 30 minutes of the match which was a part of the ‘Mind Series’ tournament. And as reported by Charles Watts for Goal.com, the midfielder will be out of action for several weeks, which effectively rules him out of the Premier League opener against newly promoted Brentford next week.  .......Read more here.....

Arsenal have had a number of players absent from the last couple of fixtures, and here’s the official verdict when it comes to some of them being involved when the Gunners face Leeds United on Sunday.

Goalkeeper Bernd Leno was sent off for a, for a lack of a better word, foolish moment when he handled the ball outside the penalty area in the 2-1 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers on February 2nd. He has now served his one-match suspension – the 1-0 defeat away to Aston Villa on Saturday last, which means he is available for Sunday.  .......Read more here.....