Jamie Carragher hauled Thomas Partey over the simmering coals, labelling the latter’s performance in the first-half of Arsenal’s clash with West Ham as the worst he has seen from the midfielder.
Carragher was featuring on Super Sunday on Sky when the Gunners failed to cling onto their 2-0 lead at Liverpool last weekend. Understandably Gunners fans had not expected history to repeat itself when their side went 2-0 in front early on against West Ham.
To their credit, Mikel Arteta’s side played some sensational football going forward and it was evident West Ham did not have the same quality Liverpool possess in attack. However, David Moyes’ men were able to give the Premier League leaders a right royal scare before half-time when Declan Rice was stellar in winning the ball off of Partey, that subsequently led to Lucas Paqueta being brought down inside the box by Gabriel.
Said Benrahma converted the penalty to halve the deficit. Which was what led Carragher to express his indignation at how poor Partey had been for the league leaders.
“Thomas Partey’s been fantastic this season for Arsenal, but this is the worst I’ve seen him play. He’s just not at the races at all,” Carragher told Super Sunday.
Mikel Arteta would be justifiably concerned to see his side give away the momentum in a game in the blink of an eye once again. That said, Liverpool still do possess world-class players in their ranks despite their current conundrum. Then also, almost anything is possible at Anfield, the entire football world knows.
But to lose valuable ground against a club that’s battling against relegation is baffling, to say the least.
The game had been there for the taking for Arsenal. And, on perhaps another day, the match should have been confidently wrapped up within 20 minutes.
Arsenal have no one else but themselves to blame after handing Manchester City a precious opportunity to edge ahead in the title race.