EPL

Arteta confirms muscle injury for Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey

By Sports Desk February 06, 2021

Thomas Partey sustained a muscle injury during Arsenal's defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday, manager Mikel Arteta confirmed.

The midfielder was replaced by Willian after 74 minutes of the 1-0 loss at Villa Park, the Gunners' second Premier League defeat in a row and their 10th of the season.

The £45million signing from Atletico Madrid has only completed 90 minutes for Arsenal four times in all competitions and had a thigh injury that saw him miss a month of action from early December.

Of his nine starts in the top flight, this was the sixth time he has been substituted.

Speaking after the match, Arteta said: "He had a muscular injury so we had to take him off. He could not carry on playing.

"I don't know [how bad it is]. We will see the extent of the injury. He wasn't feeling well enough to continue playing so we had to take him off."

Ollie Watkins scored after 74 seconds and Villa held firm to see out a third consecutive league win over Arsenal, the first time they have enjoyed such a run since November 1993.

They had eight shots on target to Arsenal's three, despite having only 34 per cent of the possession, with their expected goals rating of 1.2 better than the visitors' 0.8.

It was a performance boss Dean Smith felt was much improved from the one they delivered on Wednesday, when they lost 3-1 at home to West Ham.

"I said to them at the start that we'd gone away from being a good team on Wednesday, and the values we'd had to be a good team had been about the work rate, the team ethic and being good team-mates. We saw that in bundles today," Smith said to BT Sport after watching his side move eighth in the table.

"We started with a really good intensity, that set us up really well. It had to be a good defensive performance at times, but their goalkeeper made some really good saves as well.

"There's a doggedness about the players, a great team spirit. You could hear them at the end, the last five minutes, it was the noise you want to hear."

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