For Arsenal, Lucas Torreira is the little “fighter” who wins the little battles. His influence should not be measured in goals or assists, but in the tackles he makes on the edge of his penalty area, the interceptions he sees on the halfway line and the passes that control the flow of the game. “They are small things out there,” he says. “But in the end they make a big difference.”

The Arsenal fans know this already, of course. For years they have longed for a player like Torreira, a midfielder who can fight at the back as well as flourish in attack. It should come as little surprise, then, that the Uruguayan has already been excitedly heralded as the answer to so many of Arsenal’s problems.

“It’s a great challenge and a new challenge for me,” says Torreira. “I’m the kind of person who likes to fight for these things, to always be fighting my way up, like my dad always tells me. I am so happy.”

He is happy with Arsenal, and there is no doubt that Arsenal are happy with him. His £26.4m transfer fee represented a significant outlay, but Torreira is already making good progress on justifying that fee since his arrival from Sampdoria. With him in the side, Arsenal have scored 24 goals and conceded four this season. Without him, they have scored nine goals and conceded 10.