Arsenal icon Tony Adams has compared midfielder Thomas Partey to French legends Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Pettit.
Mikel Arteta's side currently lead the Premier League, sitting five points clear of second-placed Manchester City and Partey has been a huge reason for their success. The Ghana international is tasked with breaking up play in the middle of the park whilst also progressing the ball vertically, regularly playing line-breaking passes to the more advanced Martin Odegaard and Granit Xhaka.
Now, former Gunners captain Adams has compared the 29-year-old to Vieira and Petit, who led Arsenal to the 1998 Premier League title, with the former was a major part of subsequent victories in 2002 and 2004. “But any defence is only as good as the protection from in front and my player of the season so far is Thomas Partey, because he’s been out of this world," Adams told The Sun.
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“He’s Patrick Vieira and Manu Petit rolled into one and I’m loath to bring attention to how well he’s playing because I feel Arsenal have been getting away with it. If you don’t put someone on him, he will dictate the game because he breaks things up for fun and gets the whole team playing.
"Having Partey playing every week after all his injury problems has released Martin Odegaard and means we don’t have that crazy thing with Granit Xhaka trying to drop in at left-back to provide cover any more.”
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