Thomas Partey suffered a muscle injury in Arsenal’s defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday. The Black Stars midfielder’s injury setbacks since arriving in north London, is of huge concern to the Gunners.

Partey has been hampered by injuries since his move to Arsenal from Atletico Madrid last year. He limped off 16 minutes from time after suffering what appeared to be a recurrence of the thigh injury which kept him out of action for more than a month from early December.

“He had a muscular injury so we had to take him off,” Arteta said on Saturday following the loss. “He could not carry on playing. I don’t know [how bad it is].”We will see the extent of the injury. He wasn’t feeling well enough to continue playing so we had to take him off.”

Ollie Watkins’ early strike was the difference in the Midlands and condemned Arsenal to back-to-back defeats, following their 2-1 loss to Wolves on Tuesday.