The possession-based style, however, has its demerits. Without proper defensive midfielders who can safeguard the defence and sniff out counter attacks, the Gunners were always vulnerable at the back leaking in goals from the counter attacks.
Having a proper defensive midfielder with mobility and defensive awareness goes a long way toward solving the issue. When Francis Coquelin was deployed as a defensive midfielder alongside Santi Cazorla at the back end of 2014-15 season, Arsenal proved defensively astute because of the ball winning attributes of the duo.
Torreira is an upgrade on the Frenchman in terms of tackling, interceptions and tidy distributions. The Uruguayan shields the back four as well as sniffing out the counter attacks.
Torreira started his career as a No.10 before being rebooted into a Defensive Midfielder at Sampordia. He is extremely quick-footed with an ability to pick out the right pass. This facet of his game alone makes him an upgrade on the defensive midfielders Arsenal had in the recent years.
Francis Coquelin, though a proper midfield destroyer, was never the one to contribute to the attack. Flamini and Arteta, for all their influence and importance to the squad, were veterans with age
With Torreira at the base of the midfield, Arsenal has a mobile Defensive midfielder with a good passing range who can contribute to the offensive part of the game without neglecting his defensive duties. He offsets the weaknesses of Granit Xhaka, who was tasked with protecting the back four for the last two years even though he doesn’t possess the skills to do so, and enables him to dictate the tempo of the game alongside the Uruguayan.
Having two defensive midfielders with exceptional passing range allows the Gunners to move the ball quickly to Mesut Ozil and the offensive players like Aubameyang, Lacazette and Ramsey in positions where they can do real damage. Furthermore, his expertise in dead ball situations adds another weapon to the Gunner’s attacking armoury.