Fewer touches than Raya: Arteta must drop 3/10 Arsenal ace after Atalanta

Well, the positives from last night’s game were that Arsenal picked up a point away from home in their Champions League opener and maintained a clean sheet in the process.

The negative, however, was the game itself, as Mikel Arteta’s side and Atalanta played out what might just have been the most mind-numbingly boring game of the season thus far, with David Raya’s double save the only saving grace.

Now, a large part of why it was so dull was the incredible defending from the North Londoners, and on that front, there can be no complaints, but in other areas of the pitch, there were some big underperformers, including one who took fewer touches than Raya and was just as bad as Thomas Partey.

Partey’s game in numbers

After starting in the North London Derby on Sunday and putting in what can only be described as an adequate performance, Partey was tasked with starting last night’s clash alongside Declan Rice and Kai Havertz.

Now, a match away to the Europa League champions and Coppa Italia runners-up from last season is no small task.

However, even with that caveat, the Ghanaian looked totally off the pace and struggled to have a steady impact on the match, and when he did do something impactful, he gave away a penalty, for which Raya bailed him out.

It might sound harsh, but it’s an opinion shared by GOAL’s Tom Manston, who gave him just a 5/10 at full-time, writing that the experienced international was ‘overrun at times’ and ‘clumsy.’

This appraisal of the 31-year-old’s performance is backed up by his statistics, as in his 58 minutes of action, he racked up a combined expected goal and assists figure of just 0.09, took just 39 touches, maintained a passing accuracy of only 79%, didn’t play any key passes, missed one big chance lost three of five duels, lost the ball eight times, made one tackle, was dribbled past once and gave away the penalty.

Partey’ game in numbers
Minutes	58′
Expected Goals	0.06
Expected Assists	0.03
Touches	39
Passing Accuracy	27/34 (79%)
Key Passes	0
Big Chances Missed	1
Lost Possession	8
Duels (Won)	5 (2)
Tackles	1
Dribbled Past	1
Penalties Conceded	1
All Stats via Sofascore

In all, it was a fairly terrible showing from Partey, and as he replaced him in the second half, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Jorginho start ahead of him at the weekend. Yet, one of his teammates was at least equally poor on the night.

Gabriel Jesus’ game in numbers

Yes, unfortunately for the Brazilian forward, it was Gabriel Jesus who was one of the other notably poor performers last night.

Chances were hard to come by for the 27-year-old, but he didn’t help the situation either by looking uncomfortable on the ball, taking heavy touches and failing to fasten his own goalscoring chances.

Unsurprisingly, Manston wasn’t impressed with the São Paulo-born ace either, describing him as ‘rusty’ and giving him a 3/10 on the night, and while that sounds harsh, it’s an opinion once again backed up by the forward’s statistics.

For example, in his 58 minutes on the pitch, he didn’t even register an expected goals number as he didn’t take a single shot, his expected assists figure was just 0.09, he failed in his only dribble attempt, took just 32 touches – 14 fewer than Raya – lost five of seven duels and was offside three times.

Jesus’ game in numbers
Minutes	58′
Goals	0
Assists	0
Expected Goals	0.00
Expected Assist	0.09
Shots	0
Touches	32
Dribbles (Successful)	1 (0)
Duels (Won)	7 (2)
Offside	3
All Stats via Sofascore

Ultimately, while most of the midfield and forward line put in underwhelming performances last night, Partey and Jesus were particularly disappointing and, as such, should be nowhere near the starting lineup on Sunday.