BBC Match of the Day pundit Martin Keown has heaped praise on new Arsenal signing Lucas Torreira in his regular column in the Daily Mail, and said he has brought balance to the midfield, helping the Gunners “boss” the game in the 5-1 win against Fulham.
In his TACKLEKEOWN column, he was asked by a fan whether he’d got his old Arsenal back, after Unai Emery’s side have registered nine wins on the spin.
Keown said, “What’s clear to see is that they have won three times away from home — having only done so four times on the road in the Premier League throughout the whole of last season.
“Lucas Torreira has brought balance to the midfield. He has freed Granit Xhaka to be more creative.
“Until this match, it felt like Unai Emery’s Arsenal were a work in progress. On Sunday [v Fulham] they bossed the game.”
OPINION
Some players move to the premier League and slot in straight away. It takes others more time and while Arsenal fans were begging Emery to start Torreira in earlier games, he took his time to introduce him and it seems to have paid dividends. He’s made an appearance in all eight of Arsenal’s league games so far but has only started the last three, playing 90 minutes in each of the three wins. In those games, against Everton, Fulham and Watford, Arsenal scored nine goals and only conceded once in a 5-1 win. Torreira has to take a lot of the credit, putting in brilliant shifts at the heart of the Arsenal midfield. Fans were expecting a lot after Arsenal spent £27million on the 22-year-old this summer from Sampdoria. He’s finally looking like the player fans were hoping for. Arsenal have four more winnable games, against Leicester, Sporting, Crystal Palace and Blackpool before a huge test against Liverpool on November 3. If they can keep their winning record going through all of these games, Keown might well feel like he’s got the Arsenal of old back again.