August 01, (THEWILL) – The next season of the English Premier League is only 12 days and already the injury concerns that have plagued Arsenal football returned in their pre-season match which they lost 2-1 against Chelsea on Sunday.
Nine minutes past the half hour mark and former Atletico Madrid midfielder, Thomas Partey, one of the best performers in the game had to be withdrawn for an injury he tried to endure and play with but could not.
In post-match comments, Gunners’ manager Mikel Arteta confirmed the worst fears of the Emirates fans about the situation around Thomas Partey’s injury when he was quoted as saying: “At the moment it’s not looking good.”
The Ghanaian has hardly had the chance to properly settle and give the Arsenal faithful what his potential promises in any sustained fashion since his celebrated move to the Premiership from La Liga’s current League champions.
Every time, he returned from injury and clicked back to form, there was another setback waiting just around to corner to consign him to the sidelines for another period, denying the Emirates side the productivity of his high profile contributions when he is fit and on the team sheet for matches.
Although his replacement, the Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka, who has been strongly linked with a move to join Jose Mourinho at Serie A side Roma, scored the leveller for the Gunners, Chelsea kicked off the pre-season Mind Series tournament with a composed 2-1 victory over their London rivals.
The injury to Xhaka aside, Arsenal began the game on top. They caused Thomas Tuchel’s charges some trouble down the left wing, but Chelsea opened the scoring with a Kai Havertz goal from a two-on-one chance after 26 minutes. The Gunners could have equalised but Emile Smith Rowe’s strike, just like Hakim Ziyech’s after him, came back off the post to see Chelsea finish the half ahead.
Ziyech was again guilty of fluffing another excellent chance to double the Chelsea lead before Xhaka headed Arsenal level from a corner midway through the second half. Then, Tammy Abraham, who had also been linked with a move to the Emirates took advantage of the famous Arsenal sloppiness in defense to get the Blues back in front.
There was a second Arsenal goal in the match as Joe Willock fired the ball home late on. However, even though replays showed the ball to have bounced over the line, the goal was not given and Chelsea instead managed to see the rest of the game out comfortably for a good start.
The Gunners team saw all of their vulnerabilities from last season exposed even after the previous victories they had managed in the pre-season matches so far played. What will worry Arteta most is the injury to Partey from this match and the ones that may come with more games they play.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
