It didn’t taken long for Dani Ceballos to win over Arsenal supporters. An hour into his home debut he robbed Burnley’s Johann Gudmundsson and played in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for the winner. The Emirates sensed this could be the start of something special.
Wind back his career clock about seven years to the day he was discovered by Spanish club Betis and the story of instant impact is very similar.
Betis scout Aurelio Santos had turned up to a regional under-16s game to watch two opposing full-backs, when a midfield tearaway who he knew nothing about stole the show.
Just 15 minutes into the game he called his assistant to see if the name ‘Ceballos’ figured in the club’s huge database but there was no trace.
"That day he did absolutely everything," Santos told Sportsmail. "He won a penalty, he took the penalty, and when it was saved he ran to pick the ball up before sprinting across to take the subsequent corner. He was hyperactive. We knew we had to have him."
Santos asked Ceballos' team, Utrera, if he could come for a trial. The next battle was to make sure Real Madrid and Barcelona didn’t steal him away.
"We weren’t able to play the game at our own training ground and we were picking players for the following season so there was lots of talent on display. Real Madrid and Barcelona were watching.
"We took Dani off before the break. The decision was made. We didn’t need to see any more.
"I spoke to him after the match and he was with one of his team-mates. He said: “I’ll get going because you obviously don’t want me”.
"He thought because we’d taken him off we weren’t interested. I had to tell him: “No, we want you. We just didn’t want anyone else to see you!""
Ceballos did sign for Betis, earning around 60 euros a month at first just to cover travelling expenses. Within a year he was making his first team debut.
If not for Santos spotting him, life might have not taken him much further than Utrera, the Andalusian heartland municipality famous for Flamenco, the Spanish fighting bull ‘Toro Bravo’ and another former Arsenal player Jose Antonio Reyes.
But he was in the big time now. His Betis supporting parents who owned a ‘churros’ stand from where they sold the traditional sugary, doughy, deep-fried snack were the proudest in Andalusia.
Ceballos’ former managers talk about him being a ‘special’ kid from a humble background and one who without academy football during those formative years still had the soul of a street player.
The word 'anarchic' crops up a lot when speaking to his former coaches.
Pepe Mel built his second division promotion winning Betis team around the 18-year-old Ceballos in the 2014-15 season.
Gus Poyet would manage him in the first division in the 2016-17 campaign but with less success.
Mel recalls: "You had to be on top of him. He had to feel important. It was hard for him to learn tactically at first because of that street football spirit. He’s an intuitive player."
When Poyet took over it seemed he would be an important part of the team. He tweaked his system to get him into the area more and he was scoring goals.
"But you have to make him the protagonist," he says. "When Dani has the responsibility of having the ball, of carrying the weight of the team, of getting close to the area and creating chances, then you get the best from him."
Ceballos fell out with Zidane over limited game time despite good performances when picked, and when Zidane returned to the club last March, it was clear Ceballos would have to leave.
Florentino Perez, the club’s president, insisted on a loan deal, which meant Sunday's opponents Tottenham, who only wanted to buy him outright, lost him to Arsenal.
The question now is how will fare in the Premier League under Unai Emery.
His former coaches, his close pal Nieto, and the scout who discovered him are all positive.
"Unai is a good coach for him,’ says Mel. " There is a logic in the anarchy you get from Dani," addes Nieto. 'Emery understands that logic. Football these days is planned to the last millimeter. Someone has to do something improvised. Dani gives you that."
Poyet agrees: "I think he gives Arsenal something they didn’t have before,’ he says. ‘He’ll link up with [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang and [Alexandre] Lacazette and technically he is very good.
"The best I have seen him play has been for Spain Under-21s when you have nine players who are very positional and he goes where he wants to."