How Lucas Torreira proved once and for all that it is already time for him to begin starting games for Arsenal

Unai Emery admitted after Arsenal’s 2-1 victory over Newcastle on Saturday that the control showed by summer signing Torreira helped to win the game

This summer over in the United States, the Cleveland Browns had the first pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, primarily because they’re useless. After much deliberation they eventually settled on the 23-year-old Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, an All-American superstar in waiting, with a livewire right-arm and the well-coiffured beard of a Hollywood heart throb.

The Browns deemed Mayfield the most talented player among the 256 hopefuls they had to choose between, identifying him as the ideal candidate to somehow reverse their impressively awful 0-16 2017 season. But when the Browns took to the field for their opening match of the new campaign — a 21-21 draw with the Pittsburgh Steelers last weekend — Mayfield was not among the starters.

It sounds dramatic, doesn’t it — the franchise’s most desirable player reduced to a cameo role when he should have been taking centre stage — and yet the reality is rather different. Instead, Mayfield has been earmarked for something called a ‘redshirt year’, effectively an educational campaign where he will learn from the veteran in front of him before competing for a starting spot next time around.

Whether Unai Emery is an American football fan or not is anybody’s guess, and it is probably unlikely he has time to settle down in front of seven hours of NFL RedZone action given the vast amount of Arsenal positional play DVDs he reportedly wades through every week. And yet through his management of both Lucas Torreira and Bernd Leno it would appear he’s familiar with redshirt campaigns, or at least the thinking behind them.

There are two notable outliers here, of course. Laurent Koscielny’s long-term Achilles injury means that Emery could not afford Sokratis Papastathopoulos any grace period after his arrival from Borussia Dortmund, while 19-year-old Mattéo Guendouzi has been an unlikely constant in Arsenal’s starting XI, albeit with a full pre-season under his belt. But with the club’s two most expensive summer signings, Emery has followed a different route.

It’s easy to see the thinking, particularly in Leno’s case. After all, Arsenal were handed a particularly difficult start to the season — with games against top six rivals Manchester City and Chelsea — and throwing Leno in at the deep end risked shattering his confidence before he had sufficient time to adjust to his new surroundings. Even considering his well-documented struggles, keeping Cech in goal was the shrewd and sensible decision.

But it is getting increasingly difficult to understand why Torreira is yet to start a game, especially considering how markedly he has improved Arsenal when introduced from off the bench. After impressive cameos in the wins over West Ham and Cardiff, he was superb on Saturday against Newcastle, decisively swinging the pendulum in Arsenal’s favour after an anaemic, error-strewn first-half.

It took him less than five minutes to make his first significant impression, as he perceptively prodded the ball forward to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang near the edge of the box, leading to the free-kick which Granit Xhaka so skilfully converted. Torreira came on and kept things simple: offering Arsenal a constant outlet in the middle of the park and setting their tempo with his quick passing.

If there was one downside, it was that he noticeably slowed down in the final ten minutes, perhaps as a result of a slight knock he suffered during the international break, which would at least explain his limited role on this particular occasion. It could yet see him rested for Thursday night’s European match against Vorskla Poltava, which would arguably bolster his chances of starting against Everton a few days later.

Is it time for Lucas Torreira to take centre stage? (Getty)

Predictably, it didn't take awfully long for the Uruguayan’s name to crop up in Emery’s post-match press conference. And yet, when invited to direct some praise in Torreira’s direction, Emery made sure to choose his words carefully. “I want to give every player confidence and I am very happy with both Matteo and Lucas,” he said after a moment’s pause. “With the balance of the game in the second-half we needed much more with our positioning, and Lucas helped to give us this balance.”

It is a balance that — at present — may just be beyond the capability of Guendouzi. There is so much to like about the floppy-haired youngster, particularly his constant demand for the ball as well as his infectious enthusiasm, something that was sorely lacking from Arsenal’s play last season. But he is still so raw, frequently guilty of overplaying in dangerous positions and tactically naive.

Torreira is more composed than his younger team-mate (Arsenal FC via Getty)

In contrast, Torreira is a player who gets the basics right. He has been introduced from off the bench in all five of Arsenal’s league matches so far, misplacing just seven of the 102 passes he has played. That he has played almost as many passes backwards as he has forwards — averaging a pass almost every minute — further shows how he has that metronomic quality which Arsenal have been sorely missing.

The question, then, is can Arsenal afford to protect a player like Torreira by gradually redshirting him into life in the Premier League, when the club have craved a midfielder of his ability for so long? Even if Torreira is not yet ready for ninety minutes, he is ready to start. The sooner he can begin influencing games for Arsenal from the outset, the better.

Tick-tock Torreira

The midfielder's match in numbers

45 minutes played
38 touches, 2 shots on goal
31 passes, 74.2% completion rate
1 tackle, 1 interception, 1 foul