Ex-Arsenal player Jack Wilshere has backed current midfielder Thomas Partey to improve upon last season's showing, claiming that the Ghanaian will 'come good' for Mikel Arteta's side in the next campaign.
Wilshere, 29, is currently without a club and as a result, has had a substantial amount of time to talk all things Arsenal. The Gunners fan favourite shared that Partey is a ‘very good’ player, who had his ‘ups and downs' last season.
Interestingly enough, this time last summer was the period where Arsenal were looking to bring in the £45million midfielder from now Spanish champions Atletico Madrid.
And after his debut season in English football which didn't really get going due to multiple injury disruptions, Wilshere, who shared that he has played against Partey, has backed him to smash it ahead of the new campaign.
“I like Partey,” said Wilshere on the Highbury Squad's YouTube channel. “I think there’s more to come from him. I think he had ups and downs last season.
“But I think he’s going to come good this season. He’s a really good player. I have played against him a few times. He’s very good.”
Despite a rather underwhelming first season, one man alongside Wilshere who will also be hoping that the 28-year-old will 'come good' is manager Arteta.
The Spaniard spoke about the difficult start to life in England for the Ghanaian in April and the reasons for that.
“It’s very difficult to make a proper assessment of Thomas’ performances so far because he has missed six months and that is a long time," Arteta explained.
“He is still adapting to our way of playing, which is different to what he did at Atletico, but we can all see what he brings to the team.
“It’s about him finding the level of consistency that we need from him because he has the capacity that we can build a team that can play around him.
“The biggest difficulty he has had so far is that he has not been fit. Then every time he recovered, he missed the next game.
“He has not had time to prepare himself physically to play at the highest level and that has obviously had an impact because the Premier League demands real fitness.”
Arsenal's fourth most expensive signing of all time featured in a total of 33 games for Arteta's side in the last campaign, contributing three assists in that time to the cause.
