Arteta Drops Hint About Tierney And Partey’s Potential Involvement Against City

Arteta Drops Hint About Tierney And Partey’s Potential Involvement Against City

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has refused to rule out Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey playing against Manchester City on Saturday evening.

Tierney is self-isolating after coming into close contact with Stuart Armstrong (who has tested positive for COVID-19) on international duty. However, Arteta says they are currently in talks about whether they can get special dispensation to waive the 14-day quarantine:


“This is getting very complicated when we send players abroad and lose control. Some authorities have different regulations to the ones in the Premier League. We are still having some discussions and hopefully we will have more news this afternoon.”

On Partey, Arteta said a lot will depend on the midfielder and whether he can adapt to the Gunners’ style of play quickly:

“Today he will have his first training session. He will need to go quickly. He wants to play. We will see [on Saturday]. You see players adapting really quickly and others taking a long time.”

Partey himself has already said that he is open to starting against City if Arteta wants him to but, as the manager says, the next two days of training will likely decide if he is included in the starting line up.

With a player of his quality available, Arteta would be very keen to integrate him into the first team straight away and he would certainly increase Arsenal’s chances of getting a result at the Etihad were he to start the match.