Lucas Torreira accuses Arsenal of costing him Uruguay spot during surprise rant

Arsenal beat Burnley 1-0 last weekend thanks to a Martin Odegaard free-kick but pressuring is mounting on manager Mikel Arteta to deliver more impressive results

Arsenal midfielder Lucas Torreira has accused his parent club of ruining his international career – despite only being away from the club on loan.

The Uruguayan joined Fiorentina on loan this summer and the Serie A side have the option to make the move permanent for approximately £12.5million at the end of the season.

Torreira hasn’t featured for Arsenal since the end of the 2019/20 campaign and fell down the pecking order quickly once Mikel Arteta took charge.

Although he has made 89 appearances in total for Arsenal, Torreira still seems unhappy with how he was treated in north London and has hit out at the Gunners in a recent interview.

Speaking to Uruguayan broadcaster Teledoce, via Sport Witness, the 25-year-old said: “I want to play as much as possible and help Fiorentina this season. We must continue like this.

“Now, I will continue with a great desire to work, grow and make myself available to the manager to be ready.

“At Arsenal, I had little continuity of late, which also cost me the call-up to the Uruguay national team in the last chunk of the World Cup qualifiers.

“With a cool head, maybe it was better this way because I had more time to work at Fiorentina and to fit into the manager’s plans”.

Torreira has played just 66 minutes for his new club but appears to be more settled than ever, which could come back to hurt him considering that there is no obligation for Fiorentina to sign him permanently.

Since Arteta was appointed as manager, the Arsenal midfield has been rotated regularly. No player appears to have nailed down the two holding midfielder spots entirely, though there is a preference for Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka when the pair are both available.

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Albert Sambi Lokonga was also purchased over the summer from Belgian side Anderlecht for £15million as part of a major rebuild at the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners spent over £150million in total, bringing in players all under the age of 24 so that Arteta has an improving squad for the future.

However, there appears to be little consideration for the now as Arsenal have only won two of their five games this season, against Norwich and Burnley, and have looked subpar in all the games.

Discussing his project last month, Arteta said: “This is a project that is going to take some time,

“You can see and tell from the recruitment that we’ve done and the really young squad that we have at the moment and it cannot happen overnight.

“We all want to make it as quick as possible and we know that the responsibility for us is to fight with the top teams in every competition and that’s not going to change.”

Pressure is piling on the former Everton midfielder to get results and at least compete for one piece of silverware this season.

His only two wins this season have been by a 1-0 margin so even the wins lack conviction. Arsenal host Tottenham Hotspur this weekend in the North London Derby.