Several aspects of Arsenal's play this season have been predictable. The regular concessions of possession in their defensive third; not making it hard enough for opposition to reach the edge of their penalty area; the continued brilliance of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. All themes established last season that have continued into this and each of them perfectly explicable.

A stranger sight however, is Lucas Torreira giving his best Frank Lampard impression, ghosting beyond the last line of defence as a penalty-box poacher.

Torreira was purchased in the summer of 2018 to great fanfare, heralded as the specialist defensive screen Arsenal's midfield had lacked since Gilberto Silva. His performances in the World Cup with Uruguay, notably when bumping Cristiano Ronaldo off the ball, displayed the garra charrua inside the diminutive Torreira who would add bite, tenacity and sharpness to Arsenal's engine room. Torreira's best performances of the season - against Liverpool and Tottenham at the Emirates - justified the noise, when he partnered Granit Xhaka in a double-pivot. He faded in the second-half of the season, but that was understandable after international exertions and a first season without a winter break (plus Arsenal reaching the Europa League final and the physical toll that entails).

So far this season, Unai Emery has been reluctant to use Torreira in a deeper midfield role. This was easy to account for in August due to his truncated pre-season, but is now becoming a concerning theme. When part of a midfield three with Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi against Spurs and Manchester United, it was Torreira tasked with stepping between the lines in support of the forwards. This seems an odd use of a player who made his name at the base of a diamond with Sampdoria, reading play immaculately and shuttling back and forth to protect his two centre-backs.