Arsenal are on an amazing run which could hardly have been foreseen after we lost our first two games to Man City and Chelsea, but it may be worth noting that at the time Lucas Torreira was just settling in after his late arrival from the World Cup, as well as learning a new language and culture. As he himself said: “So at first everything was new for me. It is a new style of football. It is different and so are my team-mates but it’s about always fighting for it and working day after day. I am listening a lot and learning with the help of my team-mates and all the people in the club — the technical staff have helped me to grow. It has made me feel really comfortable with the team.”
But he seems to have settled in extremely well now and is looking like an amazing summer buy. Martin Keown certainly thinks so. “Watching Emery’s side grind out their victory at Sporting Lisbon reminded me of the ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ days,” he said.
“It may not have been the prettiest performance but there was an inevitability that they would get the job done.
“The key acquisition has been midfielder Lucas Torreira, the only man to play in all 11 wins.
“He has added steel and bite, controls the play and allows Granit Xhaka to be more creative.”
Keown isn’t the only one that thinks he has helped Xhaka to improve, so does Granit! As he said last week: “You can see that he’s important for us because he’s strong in defence and in duels,”
“He can play easily from side to side and going forward, he helps with our balance.
“He lets me play my game with the ball and go a bit more in front. I am happy with him and the other guys playing in the midfield.”
Even though the fans would love to see Torreira start every game, he has actually only started 5 times and come on as a sub 8 times, but it is always so obvious the difference he makes to the team when he is on the field. Could he be the catalyst Arsenal needed to really make a strong challenge for the title?
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I think he is the man who will help the rest of the team fight to be as high as the team can be at the end of the season.
The confidence he can give our attackers can contribute to us being better infront of goal, I do think we score more goals per min with him on the field as well but I haven’t checked this so might be wrong 😛
Our CBs was always let down by a lack of a DM, this made our CBs appear worse than they was and I do think we have some talented defenders who just needed someone to drill them to defend along with a DM who can do his job.
Despite the hype around Torreira, he is just one of the reasons Arsenal keep winning. I know stats could be deceiving, but we can see several key stats together:
(premierleague.com/stats/top/players/total_pass)
– Most passes: 1. Xhaka – 2. Mustafi
(premierleague.com/stats/top/players/total_tackle)
– Most tackles: 1. Mustafi and Guendouzi – 2. Torreira
(premierleague.com/stats/top/players/interception)
– Most interceptions: 1. Mustafi and Torreira – 2. Guendouzi
(premierleague.com/stats/top/players/goal_assist)
– Most assists: 1. Bellerin – 2. Ramsey
(premierleague.com/stats/top/players/total_through_ball)
– Most through balls: 1. Ozil – 2. Ramsey
yyaaawwwwnnnn. Get a life.
On reflection gotanidea, I apologise.
Both of us should get better things to do instead of spending time checking for replies on JustArsenal, but we can’t
Stats don’t always tell the correct story
Torreira is an immensely important player and his affects on the team can’t be quantified by stats.
You can’t judge all of the qualities of a dm by stats.
I would say his importance is up there with Aubameyang/Lacazette
He is one of our Top 3 players and our best central midfielder
So why is it that we’ve scored more and conceded much less while he’s on the pitch than when he’s not? Or you think that’s a coincidence too and that fact can be deceiving
Replace him with Elneny and you’ll see how important he is
?
He comes from Uruguay he’s only 5 foot five ?
I keep saying, the season is still very young. I will make a final opinion about where we are as a team when we have played the likes of Liverpool, Spuds, City, Chelsea, United etc..
we are doing better than I expected even though a lot of our wins have not been convincing.
I think Emery is going though. Still bigger tests and tougher periods to come as the season progresses.
When I see Torriera and Lacazette, both/either, receiving late challenges, I wince. I can’t help but feel, our opponents would love nothing more, than to see them not getting back up. I could be in the wrong, and the challenges being purely with the thoughts of winning the ball back, so to stop the player in a fair minded manner. It’s the importance off these two players to the make up of our side, along with a few others, but I notice the challenges on these two, more so than others. I don’t know if the statistics suggest this to be the case, though, their importance towards our season or towards our match winning ability, on the day, is absolutely Mega!
B. O.Through, the real test regarding your thoughts on the challenges being perpetrated on two of our players will be when the”totally unbiased” mike dean officiates one of our matches.
A prediction?
He will book/send off Torriera and Xhaka.
He is one reason BUT a HUGE reason
Without Torreira and Guendouzi we wouldn’t be on this streak
You obviously need 11 reasons but we’ve needed a DM for a long time
We’ve needed a top dm for over a decade
Imagine if we had a Torreira type player in 2015-2016. We could possibly have beaten Leicester to win the PL.
If we had had Emery that year we would have run away with the title. But the “dynamic” directors and “passionate” owner kept WENGER. NUFF SAID!
After the sporting match, I wanted to mention how much we rely on torreira and how we’ll cope if he gets injured. I didn’t watch sporting match but I heard some people say things only got better when he came on. I just hope he doesn’t get injured cos he gets fouled a lot, and that’s so ironic, for a dmf
Torreira is the MAIN reason why we are where we are. With him in the side we only let in 3 goals without him 10+. He also helps others look good. I think the main reason Mustafi is looking better this year is that he has a good DM in front of him and the same goes for Xhaka who still needs a lot of work but is getting better.
Look, we could always score, what we couldnt do is to stop the opposition in the middle of the park giving too much work to an already fragile defense. So although I think Laca, Auba, Ozil, Iwobi are all having excellent form without Torreira they would have had to score many more goals to produce these wins.
He is one of the few players we have had in recent years who could hold his own in a TONY ADAMS CAPTAINED TEAM. OF MEN, NOT MICE. No wonder Wenger never thought of him. Wenger hated real men! He has shown ten times more guts and determination in barely a dozen games than the Weed Walcott showed in a dozen fraudulent years.
So Vieira wasn’t a real man?
Kos not a real man?
Cech?
It is almost like Wenger doesn’t hate real men but his problem with confrontation got worse to the point he didn’t confront players when they needed it and allowed bad habits to form…
I respect what Wenger has done for Arsenal, he didn’t give us as much to be proud about in the end as any of us would have wanted(however I am happy with the FA Cups) but he did help us step into the modern era and gave us some great memories along the way.
He is our ex manager, can’t you be grateful for what he did do well and not resort to petty lies, that petty lie insulted every Arsenal player who wasn’t a new signing this season along with players who did win us trophies.
Torreira is a really complete player
He is very technical defensively. He can slide like no other, his move is elegant, pacey, timely and he always manages to use the appropriate strentgh to not get the foul.
He has a very acute and panoramic view of the pitch. This allows him to read the opponents’ decisions and anticipate a lot of balls.
He has great control of the ball. He receives well, he always looks confident on the ball, and he knows how to open the sides quickly. He is a fast dribbler, changing directions often and giving himself many options for pass.
He is judicious and prudent with the ball, rarely does he lose a ball when in possession, he always finds destination for his passes.
He infuses confidence on his mates. Their body language clearly shows that they feel safe when passing the ball to Lucas. Iwobi, mhiki, laca, xhaka, bellerin, auba; everybody seems to be loving to communicate with torreira. It is like everytime he touches the ball the team grows in conviction. He has great influence on the players
He is a good passer. A good percentage of his passes are short and uncompromising, but he also tries through balls and I love it when he does, his through passes are vigorous and precise, he simply has the talent on his feet.
He is an outstanding positioner, he understands many aspects of the game, he knows the roles of of a cb, lb, rb, mc, mco and even the winger place. I have seen Torre supporting his mates successfully in all of these positions.
He has the guts that Uruguayans are famous for, I can recall, Paolo Montero, Lugano, Forlan, Godin, Cavani, Suarez. The Uruguayan gene is to be combative until minute 94, If you will lose, it will be at least with the last drop of your blood spilled on the pitch.
And the best aspect is that he is only 22 years old.
He is a vital part in the 11-in-a-row record.
thats right … he’s everything xhaka elneny and ramsey arent (combined) … with a quality b2b partner we would have a title winning midfield …
Lucas Torreira will be the buy of the season. Arsenal have needed a specialist DM since Gilberto Silva left. It is interesting to note that in his earlier career he was a striker; may account for his great ball control and set piece ability.
Toobad he didn’t start against Chelsea, Arsenal may have won the game.
He is so important, i feel he is the only irreplacable playr at the club at the moment… we should try to play Niles more often as a DM till January in the EFL cup n Europa league games n get another DM in January, preferrably one thatz taller to balance the squad. Ndidi will be perfect.Partey is another option that is also useful in RB.
I agree Niles should play second fiddle DM to Torreira. We need someone who can take some of the pressure off Torreira and not have him playing every game. I believe AMN would be perfect and allow him to groom into that role. I think he would be a great CDM
Imagine Toreira playing alongside AMN as two supporting DM, trust me, the creativity and solidity in our midfield will be highly immense.