Arsenal: So… that’s what happens when you wind up Lucas Torreira

Arsenal had a lot of standout performers against Chelsea, but after two matches on the bench, Lucas Torreira looked like he had a point to prove.

Arsenal‘s demonstrative win against Chelsea had a lot of positives to draw from, surprisingly, for the second match in a row, it was the defense that won the day, keeping a resounding clean sheet and making Chelsea look damn-near toothless.

But if the defense was superb, the midfield was too. The midfield three was pretty much perfect. They kept the pressure up throughout the match, they covered their ground, they allowed each other to play to their individual strengths and, in return, Kante, Kovacic and Jorginho looked flustered and defeated.

Oddly enough, this was Lucas Torreira‘s first start of this calendar year. For two matches he was confined to substitute duties, presumably to give him a breather, as he came off an intense World Cup summer straight into the Premier League’s unforgiving winter schedule.

Still, knowing the competitor that Torreira is, he would have absolutely wanted to be starting every match and skipping the break part.

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Seeing how he played against Chelsea, it’s safe to say he was pretty wound up. While the pressure was hot in the first 45 minutes, Torreira won seven tackles. He would win a further two in the second half for nine total tackles won. Chelsea’s midfield won five between the three of them.

Torreira owned the midfield, he looked completely rejuvenated, doubly so, and he looked like he had a personal vendetta to make up for lost time.

When he first arrived at the club this past summer, it was his ball-winning abilities that made fans most excited to see him on the pitch, but despite how great he was, his tackling was not the focal point of his game, as he was averaging just under two tackles completed a game, which was less even than Granit Xhaka.

Something clicked against Chelsea, because in one fell swoop, he is now averaging over two tackles per game. Funny how much nine tackles in 90 minutes can make a difference.

We’ll have to see if this changes anything long-term, if we start to see him completing more tackles, or if this was just a one-off, but whatever the case, he made it perfectly clear that we weren’t mistaken about his skill set when he first got here – this is what he does best, and he is one of the best at what he does.