Arsenal fell 2-1 at home to arch-rival Chelsea today, in a preseason friendly staged for a charitable cause. Granit Xhaka in the 69th minute, scored the Gunners’ only goal, but that wasn’t the major news here relating to the Switzerland international.
Strongly linked with a move to AS Roma most of the summer, talks stalled out as Arsenal played hardball in their negotiations. Manager Mikel Arteta confirmed after the match that the midfielder is staying put at Arsenal this season.
“Granit is going to stay with us,” Arteta said.
“He is a key member of our squad.”
According to journalist Fabrizio Romano: “Arsenal offered him a new contract until June 2025 with an increased salary, confident to complete the agreement soon after turning down Roma bid [€12m+€3m add ons].”
The other major news item from this Sunday matinee match also relates to a midfielder- Thomas Partey. Unfortunately, it is a bit of a bad news.
Just 12 days away from the Premier League season opener against Brentford, he had to be subbed off due to injury, which is probably best described by this tweet, from an account specializing in sport science:
Found the specific mechanism of injury for Partey (see picture).
This is typically indicative of a “high ankle sprain” aka syndesmotic tear. These typically come with a 4-6 week return timeline if a grade 1 injury. Recent example is Harry Maguire. pic.twitter.com/syae1CWCjk
— Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT (@3cbPerformance) August 1, 2021
The update, provided by Arteta after the game, was an expression of pessimism, not hope. “I just had a talk with the doc,” the Spaniard said after the game.
“He’ll have a scan tomorrow. At the moment it’s not looking good.” For the news and notes from the Chelsea side, go here.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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