Arsenal: Lucas Torreira exemplifies how hard work pays off

Lucas Torreira is everything Arsenal fans could have dreamed of, but his usefulness goes beyond just being a good ball-winner.

There is a general theme to the types of Arsenal players that Unai Emery likes to keep on the field the most. Lucas Torreira is one, then there are the likes of Bellerin, Mustafi, Guendouzi, etc. He finds time for these guys, even if they aren’t necessarily the best of the bunch (some are, though).

That’s because they are damn hard workers. None more so than Lucas Torreira. The Uruguayan midfielder has been a masterclass for the Gunners, and it’s still so early into his career at the Emirates.

But you wouldn’t necessarily know it from the numbers. He isn’t putting up N’Golo Kante-esque ball-winning numbers. He isn’t even beating out Granit Xhaka by all that much (0.3 per 90 minutes, to be exact).

And yet it is so easy to see why he is going to be a success in this league. Also, why he already is a success in this league. It’s because the man works so hard for a ball that if he were to find himself in a situation where he had to try to tackle the ball with his head, he would do it.

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Because he has already done that.

FourFourTwo ran an excellent story that exemplifies how his hard work is paying off in perhaps an unexpected way – he gets fouled a lot. As much as most dribbling attackers whose job it is to get fouled.

Why does that happen? Easy. It’s because Torreira doesn’t shy away from any challenge. And when that is the case, it is highly likely that you are going to enter into some 50/50 challenges and if you can beat out your opponent by even the smallest of margins, there is a good chance you will then get fouled.

Maybe it’s a slight hesitation on their part, maybe it’s them not wanting it as much, maybe it’s just that it may well be impossible to want it more than Torreira, but he always seems to be there a split second before anyone else. Which, in turn, leads to him getting fouled, earning a spot kick, stomping out the embers of an opposing attack – any number of useful things.

Arsenal have a ton of hard-working players, even more so now that Emery is in charge. But no one does it quite like Lucas Torreira.