Arteta claims that Arsenal’s form has brought out the best in Partey

Mikel Arteta believes Thomas Partey is currently “in a really good place,” and he claims Arsenal has changed their tactics in recent weeks to get the most out of their star midfielder.

The midfielder has battled for consistency since moving to north London from Atletico Madrid, but he has been in fine form since the turn of the year.

Partey’s recent efforts earned him the title of Arsenal’s February player of the month, and Arteta feels the standard his midfielder is presently setting must be the standard moving ahead.

“Yes, and it shows what he can do,’ Arteta stated.

“And he should be with those contenders because the ability he has is up there with the best in the team. Now he needs to show consistently that he can do that,” he added.

Arteta has changed Arsenal’s formation in recent games, favoring a 4-3-3 formation rather than the 4-2-3-1 formation he has used since the start of the season.

“We are trying to adapt the game a little bit.

“Some of the things we are doing is to try and adapt the game for him to be able to be more decisive, to create more space for him.

“I think he is taking things well.

“It is the work we do in training to try to facilitate to players to exploit their qualities as much as possible.”

Mikel Arteta also spoke on Partey’s form now after struggling in the initial stage for his new club.

‘That’s why we decided to sign him,” said the Arsenal boss. “everything takes some time.

“We have to recognise that he had a lot of injuries as well in a period where he didn’t get any consistency in terms of minutes and match exposure.

“He needed to adapt to a completely different game model than he was used to and now I think he is in a really good place.”