Loose with virtue Arsenal already have plenty of questions to answer over the Partey allegations

The values and culture of Arsenal Football Club, as proclaimed on the club's careers website. Shall we generously call that half a point out of three? Certainly you would struggle to mark Arsenal too highly on courage or intrinsic goodliness right now. But the unhappy case of Thomas Partey illustrates the lengths to which they are willing to go to champion one of their own.

- Jonathan Liew

"We are courageous in the pursuit of progress." "We champion our community and each other." "We do the right thing (even when no one is looking)."

You knew. I knew. Rival fans knew, even if their taunting of Partey was always delivered with the sort of gleeful relish that does not exactly scream concern for the alleged victims of sexual violence. And so of course did the staff and board of Arsenal; knew the man with whom they shared a workplace and a dressing room until last week, knew what he was accused of doing.

Care, compassion and discretion are of course utterly vital at this point. The charging of Partey on 4 July means the accusations against him will finally be heard in court in August: five counts of rape, and one of sexual assault, involving three women between 2021 and 2022. Partey's lawyer, Jenny Wiltshire of Hickman and Rose, referred in a statement to her client now "welcoming the opportunity to finally clear his name".