The prospect of a one-game ban will not affect Lucas Torreira, according to Unai Emery, who is weighing up whether to start the influential midfielder against Brighton on Boxing Day.
Should the Uruguay international pick up a caution at the AMEX Stadium he’ll earn a one-game suspension, which would rule him out of the Gunners game with Liverpool on 29 December, for hitting the five card mark before the mid-way point of the season.
“I don’t know if Torreira can even play cautiously, but I don’t want him to think about the possibility of a suspension against Liverpool for one yellow card,” Emery told Arsenal.com.
“I don’t want him to think about that.”
He added: “We are going to play [with] full [commitment]…the same three points are in Brighton that are in Liverpool.”
To ensure the 22-year-old is available for the trip to Anfield, Emery could make the tactical decision to bench the midfielder on the south coast, however, when you consider our ever-lengthening injury list – we appear to have eight players out of contention for the Brighton game – it seems an unlikely course of action.
For the record, Matteo Guendouzi is also one game away from a league suspension having also picked up four yellow cards in the Premier League.
The Frenchman already missed our 1-1 draw with Liverpool in November after picking up a red card in the Carabao Cup, here’s hoping he doesn’t make the same mistake this time around.