Lucas Torreira says he’s not going to give up and he’ll keep playing to his maximum despite falling down in the pecking order a bit at Arsenal.

Torreira is away with Uruguay over the international break, and he played 90 minutes of their 1-0 win against Peru on Friday night. By all accounts, the midfielder played well, but before the game, he was discussing his current situation with Arsenal.

The midfielder has made 10 appearances for Arsenal this season, which sounds good until you look at the minutes played and realise his average showing is only around 47 minutes per game.

The 23-year-old has only started two Premier League games so far, coming off the bench five times, and even his longest league appearance was only 63 minutes. Torreira was asked by the Uruguayan media whether that’s been frustrating for him.

“I don’t know whether I’d say it’s frustrating,” the Arsenal man responded. “All players want to play, they obviously want to be in the starting XI – that’s completely normal. But that’s not something that depends on me.

“It’s down to the coach to make those decisions and really I have to respect that. Right now it’s about not giving up. You have to continue working hard and whether I’m playing in the starting XI or from the bench I want to give my all for the team.

“That’s the kind of player I am. I like to give 100 per cent for the shirt to help my team-mates and to give the fans something to cheer about.”

The most difficult thing to deal with is probably the fact that Arsenal have played so well in the other two competitions, where Torreira has featured in every single minute so far.

The Gunners scored three against Frankfurt, five against Forest and four against Liege without conceding a single goal.

Torreira has started in a midfield three with Joe Willock and one other player in each of those matches, and those two will both hope their performances will get them back into the starting lineup for the league games soon enough.