Ghana and Chelsea left-back Baba Rahman was again instrumental as Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 in the Mind Series preseason games.
The 27-year-old looks to be back in favour at Chelsea and made the team that travelled to the Emirates ahead of Marcos Alonso, who was left out entirely.
German forward Kai Havertz gave the European Champions the lead before want-away Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka headed home an equalizer in the second half.
Rahman who had made a mess of an earlier chance redeemed himself when he pressed Hector Bellerin into a mistake that fell kindly into the waiting feet of Tammy Abraham to restore Chelsea’s lead.
The Ghanaian then showed his strength by shoving off Nicolas Pepe, moments after the goal in what is evidence of his growing upper body strength and confidence even though the referee called it to be an infringement on the part of the Ghanaian.
This was Rahman’s second game in five days, following on from his impressive cameo against Bournemouth where he produced a beautiful assist for Chelsea’s first goal of the game.
There is still no guarantee that the former Asante Kotoko man will remain at the club when the season starts but he is not short of suitors with Augsburg, Olympiacos and Torino all waiting in the wings for his signature.
Rahman was signed by Chelsea in 2015 and even though he made 13 league starts in his first season, he’s failed to progress in East London, spending most of his time out on loan in Germany, Spain, France and recently Greece.
There has been talks of a potential permanent move away from Stanford Bridge this summer as there is a feeling that this will be in the best interest of both parties with the player having failed to establish himself in the first team, but that will largely depend on if Chelsea decides to keep both Marcos Alonso and European winner Emerson Palmieri.
In other news, Ghana’s Thomas Partey limped off in the first half of that game having suffered what looked like painful ankle injury following a tackle from behind from Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
The Ghanaian was treated on the pitch but immediately fell to the ground,signalling to be taken off just before the end of the first half.
The extent of the damage is yet unknown with manager Mikel Arteta waiting for a scan tomorrow but all indications are that he will have to sit out the game against Tottenham next weekend. He could be out for 6-8 weeks meaning he is likely to miss the start of the new seaon which is upon us in less then two weeks.
This is Thomas Partey’s third major injury since joining Arsenal from Atletico Madrid last summer for around £45 million. He looked in fine form and was dictating the tempo of the game before picking up the injury.