3 reasons why Lucas Torreira is Arsenal's final piece of the puzzle

#2 His similarities to N'Golo Kante

Arsenal could have signed N’Golo Kante in 2016. Kante was the hottest transfer prospect after an impressive fairytale campaign which saw his team crowned as the Premier League champions. But Arsenal eventually lost the race to sign him to their London rivals, Chelsea.

Kante could have been the panacea for Arsenal’s Achilles heel, but the midfielder who reached North London was another midfielder in the form of Granit Xhaka. Xhaka has immense talent on the ball, but his defensive performances have been marked by misery.

Both the Frenchman and the Uruguayan have the same approach of intercepting the opponents’ passing. This vision, shared alike by the duo is different from the notorious ‘Makelele role’.

Torreira and Kante can win back the ball, and keep the nerve to play out the ball from defence, instead of clearing aimlessly. In their respective leagues, they are almost on par when it comes to interceptions. Kante has an interception rate of 2.55 per game, while Torreira keeps in touch with 2.07 interceptions per game.

When taken into account the ability on the ball, Kante leads Torreira on stats like pass accuracy (89% to 87%), chances created (41 to 36), and take-on success (82% to 79%). But on the offensive front, the new Arsenal man is clearly ahead of Kante having scored four goals last season while Kante netted only once.