Arteta reveals Arsenal have been targeting Thomas Partey for months

Mikel Arteta surprised fans of the club after he completed the deal of Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid.

The Ghanaian International completed the move to Emirates on a fee reported to be around 45m pounds.

Arsenal have been linked to the player but decided to activate his buy out clause on deadline day transfer.

Following the deal of Partey who is expected to add cover the midfield of the Gunners, coach Arteta believes the player will give his team balance.

Arteta said in an interview with the club's website: "We identified him a few months ago and we have been following his progress, and obviously the more you know about the squad, you know more about where you think you can improve it.

"We believe he has the right qualities, with his character and his personality and as well with his technical qualities and positional options that he can give to the team.

"I think he allows us to play different formations and he can fit in within those formations in different positions, which is a really good thing to have in a squad where, in midfield, I think we were a little bit short."

Mikel Arteta have already brought in Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille and Willian from Chelsea as a free agent. He also signed Alex Runarsson as a back up goalkeeper.

He added that he cannot wait to train with the Atletico Madrid start who made 188 appearances in all competitions over his five years in the first-team for Diego Simeone side.

"I have a few things in mind that I want to start to train with the team and [Partey's signing] is going to give us a little bit more adaptability and more balance in defending and attacking transitions and the way we have to set up certain structures to attack better in certain moments of the game," Arteta added.

Arsenal will travel to Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City next week.