Now that Arsenal have signed Thomas Partey, what tactics could we use to get the best out of him? A thread 1/

We all know that Arteta has recently been favouring a 3-4-3 system with the left and right midfielders acting as wing backs. This system has also regularly seen a player generally recognised as a left back (mostly one of Tierney or Kolasinac) playing as LCB so that... 2/

the system can become an asymmetric 4-3-3 when the team is attacking. With the defence shifting so the LCB becomes a left back.
With Partey in the side we can expect that Mikel will take advantage of both his defensive and positional awareness as well as his range of passing. 3/

I would expect Arteta to play Partey as the right centre midfielder in this system. The bigger question for many is who to play alongside him. While many will suggest Ceballos due to his creativity, I believe a better option could be Xhaka. 4/

We know that Xhaka's main weakness is when he is the deepest midfielder, the pressure often causes him to make stupid tackles. Since he has been playing with Elneny and since Ceballos has improved his defensive game, he has become an integral part of our midfield. 5/

For this reason, Partey could well be the ideal partner for him. We may have already seen a preview of the role Partey will be tasked with when we examine Elneny against Sheffield United. In this game, Elneny was playing as a very wide right midfielder (almost a right back). 6/

This filled a hole that has been exploited by opponents in recent games between the full back and the wide centre back. Partey would be able to use his intelligence to perform this role, shuttling across as required while Xhaka would be able to express himself in the centre. 7/

In attack this could be brilliant for Pepe. The increased defensive ability on the right would allow him to remain forward as an attacking outlet, allowing us to exploit his pace while Partey's range of passing means he can also switch play to Auba to break pressure. 8/

We would also likely see Partey stay a little deeper to shield the defence or even playing as a covering centre back in case of counters while Xhaka contributes to the attack, though these roles could also be alternated throughout the match. 9/

Should Arteta switch to a 4-3-3, we would likely see Partey and Xhaka joined by Ceballos due to his mix of defensive stability and creativity. Depending on opposition we could see Xhaka rotated with Saka for creativity or Ceballos rotated with Elneny for defensive stability. 10/

In this formation I have Partey playing as the central of the 3 midfielders with Xhaka on the left and Ceballos on the right. When defending, we could see the 2 outer midfielders covering the spaces between full back and centre back while Partey stays central to cover. 11/

I believe we would also leave the wingers high ready to counter while Lacazette drops deep to be a link man. In his role, Partey would have the option of dropping to become a 3rd centre back if necessary or of staying higher to pass to Laca or ping a long ball to a winger. 12/

In attack, this formation would look similar to our current tactics with attacking wingers and full backs. In this case, the two outer midfielders would be free to join the attack while Partey shields the defence (these roles rotating throughout the match). 13/

Partey's intelligence and reading ability means that he can shield a back 2 effectively. This might allow both full backs to join most attacks rather than the current system which generally sees either one wing back or the LCB staying behind for defensive cover. 14/

This would likely be the making of players like Cedric who Mikel has admitted is extremely intelligent when in the final third and Kolasinac who loves to attack, but who have been largely shackled by the need to play a much more defensive role than is optimal. 15/

We also know that Partey is a very capable attacker who is a threat to the opposition if he gets a sight of goal. Don't be surprised if we see him become a long range free kick taker or taking corners as he is capable of precision as well as power. https://twitter.com/OldBlackHack/status/1313230335191273477?s=20 16/

As we can see Thomas Partey is an exceptional player who has the potential to make all of our players better, whichever formation Mikel uses. His intelligence and skill will allow us to play with more freedom while remaining stable defensively. 17/17