Arteta must drop Arsenal's "big-game player" to unleash "monstrous" ace

After a weekend off, Arsenal are back in action in the Champions League tonight.

The wheels might have already come off in the Premier League, but Mikel Arteta’s side have been brilliant in the Champions League this season, and while they cannot be underestimated, PSV Eindhoven offer a great chance of progressing.

Since their first meeting in 2002, the Gunners have played the Dutch outfit ten times, winning four of those games, drawing four and losing just two.

Moreover, Arteta’s men beat them 4-0 at home last season, and while they drew 1-1 away, it was a heavily rotated side.

Therefore, the manager should look to put out as strong a side as possible tonight, which means making one key change in the middle of the park: dropping Jorginho.

Why Arteta should drop Jorginho

So, there are a few key reasons why Arteta should be looking to drop Jorginho in tonight’s game.

The first is that the Italian midfielder is now 33 years old, and while he can certainly still contribute to important games, as exemplified by Daily Mirror journalist Darren Lewis‘ description of him being a “big game player,” he rarely starts in back-to-back matches anymore.

Moreover, despite being second, PSV are the highest scorers in the Eredivisie this season, with a whopping 73 goals to their name, so the game tonight will likely require the Gunners’ midfield to cover an incredible amount of ground, which just isn’t something the former Chelsea ace can manage anymore.

The second reason is that, even though he can have a big impact on games, it’s fair to say that the Imbituba-born ace didn’t against Nottingham Forest last time out.

Now, he certainly wasn’t bad at the City Ground, but the 6/10 rating from the Daily Express’ Charlie Parker-Turner was probably fair, as in his 70 minutes of action the Italian lost six of seven duels, committed three fouls, didn’t play a key pass or take a shot and was dribbled past once.

In all, Jorginho’s an incredibly useful player to have in the squad, but with so much on the line tonight, Arteta must play his best lineup, which means making a key change in the midfield.

The Arsenal star who should come in for Jorginho

When it comes to making a change at the base of midfield for a game of this magnitude, only one player can come in: Thomas Partey.

After missing much of last season through injury, the Ghanaian international has become an integral part of the Gunners’ squad this year, starting 88% of Premier League games and making 39 appearances across all competitions, in which he’s scored three goals and provided three assists.

On top of his pure output, the former Atlético Madrid star has been like a metronome at the base of midfield for Arteta’s side, helping bring the ball out of the defence and getting it forward to his midfield partners or the frontline.

For example, according to FBref, the “monstrous” machine, per content creator Bhavs, sits in the top 4% of midfielders in the Premier League for completed short passes, the top 8% for overall passes completed, the top 9% for total passing distance and more, all per 90.

Now, it is true that, like Jorginho, the 30-year-old ace struggles to cover ground in the same way he used to, but given his rest over the week, we reckon he’ll be able to cope with tonight’s challenge.

Ultimately, Arsenal have to get something out of tonight’s clash with PSV to give the fans something to cheer about, and to give his team the best chance of doing just that, Arteta should drop Jorginho for Partey.

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