Arsenal: Competition settles any Lucas Torreira nerves

In two ways, Lucas Torreira has been at the heart of a competition: between Arsenal and other clubs to sign him; between him and his teammates to start. Both cases help to settle any nerves regarding his quality.

It’s been a slow start to life at Arsenal for Lucas Torreira. While he signed early on in the summer transfer window and arrived in a frenzy of hope and expectation, since the start of the season, he is yet to start a match, though he has been introduced from off the bench in all four Premier League contests thus far.

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Nevertheless, Matteo Guendouzi has been ushered into the line-up, perhaps even in the place of Torreira, as has Sokratis at centre-half. It could be seen as a slight on Torreira that he has not been able to force his way into the team.

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But there are two elements of competition that Torreira has been at the heart of that do provide some assurance for the worries that his lack of game time create.

The first was a competition for his services in the summer. Here is Torreira speaking about how his transfer came about this summer. Notice his point that about the other Italian teams that he could have joined.

"“When I was preparing to go to the World Cup with my country, with Uruguay, I received a call from the boss. I had already had a talk with my agent who told me about the idea of Arsenal, and I was very happy because when I was in Italy, I never imagined being able to come to the Premier League. There was rumours of many Italian teams, this ended up surprising me honestly, and when I received the call from the boss I was very happy.”"

This is an indication that Torreira’s performances last season were good and that his quality is present, enough to attract interest from a series of different clubs. That interest wouldn’t be present if he wasn’t an attractive prospect. That is the first element of reassurance.

The second competition is the one that he is competing in, one for places in the central midfield. If he goes on to win that competition, as I am sure most expect him to when Arsenal return from the international break, then that is another good sign that he is of the quality that the club believed when they invested £26 million in his services.

I am not all that worried about Torreira just yet. I think that his lack of playing time can simply be put down to his poor match fitness post World Cup, with Unai Emery taking a cautious approach with him, easing him into a new team and league gently. But that could be wishful thinking. It could easily be the case that Torreira isn’t as good as Arsenal thought and that Emery doesn’t believe he has the ability to start.

If that is true, then we can take solace from the fact that several teams thought that he was good enough and that if he does win the job, he has not done so through name and price alone. He will have earned his place. Hopefully, that so transpires in the coming weeks and months.