Arsenal have been sweating over the fitness of Thomas Partey ahead of the Aston Villa clash.
The Gunners midfielder has been a key player in their Premier League title challenge this season.
Prior to Arsenal’s meeting with Manchester City, Partey had been training as normal.
However, rumours about the player’s fitness began making the rounds on Wednesday.
Just hours ahead of the match, the likes of Charles Watts corroborated those earlier reports.
Partey ended up missing out on the match, and he remains a doubt ahead of the trip to Villa Park.
On Friday, Mikel Arteta said the £200,000-a-week Arsenal star would be getting assessed.
“He had some discomfort, a little muscle discomfort,” football.london quoted the boss as saying.
Now, according to LondonWorld‘s Chris Wheatley, Arsenal won’t be taking Partey along to B6.
‘LondonWorld understands the 29-year-old won’t be risked for the trip to Villa Park as a precautionary measure,’ he wrote.
Jorginho deputising well
Bad news for Arsenal if true, as Partey has been so crucial to their impressive title-challenging form this season.
However, Jorginho filled in superbly for Partey against City, and he’ll no doubt do the same against Villa if needed.
While Partey’s fitness has improved overall he still seems prone to knocks and issues which sideline him from time to time.
The margin for error is smaller than ever at Arsenal this season.
City, the reigning champions, are also in great form and boast so much quality.
Let’s see if any more reports on Partey’s fitness start doing the rounds this morning.
And obviously, we’ll find out for certain around 11:30am GMT when the official team news come out.
