Claudius The Partey suspension had so many effects
You could have put an inanimate carbon rod at 6 and we'd have covered Dembelé better than Rice and Merino managed to, provided the rod was match fit and accustomed to its role.
Partey returning will help, I'll admit it, but the main thing about "showing up" would be everyone in our setup—including Arteta and Stuivenberg who arguably should've been instructing the players to cut out those cross-field balls a lot earlier—focusing and not getting battered for half an hour as if it's the back half of 22–23. So long as we keep it tight we can make our own luck.
