Arsenal have been left sweating on the fitness of Thomas Partey with less than two weeks to go until the start of the Premier League season after the midfielder limped off in the Gunners’ friendly defeat to Chelsea on Sunday.
Partey collided with Ruben Loftus-Cheek six minutes before the break and received treatment on the field before being helped to the sidelines.
The Ghana international joined Arsenal for £45m last October and made 33 appearances during his debut campaign in London.
Manager Mikel Arteta started Partey in a two-man midfield alongside Mohamed Elneny, and subsequently replaced the 28-year-old with Swiss international Granit Xhaka.
Former Arsenal player Perry Groves was co-commentating on the game for the club’s TV network and suggested “it might be ankle ligament” damage that forced Partey to withdraw.
And afterwards, Arteta did not have any good news for Arsenal supporters.
“I just had a talk with the doc,” Arteta said.
“He’ll have a scan tomorrow. At the moment it’s not looking good.”
Arteta was able to name a near-full strength team for the visit of Chelsea for a rare London-based friendly that was played in front of 20,000 fans at the Emirates Stadium.
But despite the experience of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pepe and Alexandre Lacazette all starting in attack, it was Kai Havertz of Chelsea who bagged the opening goal.
Absent from Arsenal’s squad was England sensation Bukayo Saka, who helped the Three Lions reach the Euro 2020 final in July. New signing Ben White – another member of the England squad that came within a penalty shootout of winning the tournament – came on at the start of the second half for the £50m acquisition’s first appearance in an Arsenal shirt.
Substitute Xhaka got on the scoresheet to level things up in north London midway through the second half, only for Tammy Abraham to fire the Blues ahead three minutes later thanks to Hector Bellerin’s wayward pass.
And with goal-line technology not in use, the officials had to decide whether a late Joe Willock strike off the bar had crossed the line. They ruled against the 21-year-old.
Arsenal will play Tottenham in a final pre-season game of the summer next Sunday, before attention turns to their opening league clash against newly promoted Brentford on Friday 13 August.
As for Chelsea, the European champions will also play Spurs in a friendly – on Wednesday – a week before their UEFA Super Cup showdown with Villarreal in Belfast.
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