Lucas Torreira will get his first Arsenal start on Thursday when FC Vorskla Poltava arrive in town.

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Although Unai Emery has been very clear about how seriously the club will take the Europa League, we are set to see a host of changes to the starting lineup for the game.

Torreira arrived at the club this summer and was Arsenal’s most expensive acquisition of the window, costing £26.4m but has so far been limited to five substitute appearances.

Analysing why Unai Emery starts Matteo Guendouzi and not Lucas Torreira

Bernd Leno is also expected to start instead of Petr Cech while the likes of Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith Rowe were not with the u23s for their 0-0 draw with Blackburn on Monday night, hinting at involvement on Thursday.

Stephan Lichtsteiner should also come into the starting lineup for the game while Danny Welbeck is also under consideration for a starting role with Henrikh Mkhitaryan also expected to start. Rob Holding should also see some action but Calum Chambers, as I original wrote, won’t because he’s on loan and I’m a d**k who started at 5am and clearly hadn’t had enough coffee when I wrote this.

When on the pitch, Torreira has been objectively and subjectively one of the best players on the pitch. So why has he yet to start a match under Unai Emery?

By Christopher Weeks

It certainly has not been his play. What has separated Matteo Guendouzi, who has started in his place? Read on to find out.

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