Mikel Arteta has returned to Arsenal with the club in the middle of a crisis. It's a good thing he has experience of arriving at the Emirates when they reach that stage in their cycle.
He made his £10million move from Everton in August 2011 as Arsene Wenger splashed out in the transfer market.
Days prior to his switch to north London, Arsenal had gone up to Old Trafford and been hammered 8-2. Injuries and suspensions played a part, but so did a squad that was just too weak after the departures of Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri.
So Wenger got out his chequebook and in came Arteta, alongside Andre Santos and Per Mertesacker, who both arrived on the same day.
The atmosphere was abysmal, but Arteta helped stabilise the situation. Arsenal won nine of their next 12 Premier League games and ended up finishing third in the division.
That had seemed impossible when they dropped down to 17th after the United defeat.
Arteta, a calming influence in the middle of the park, added something that they were sorely lacking.
There are not many who will wax lyrical about Arteta at the Emirates. He was not a spectacular player for Arsenal, but it was not a spectacular side.
Yet they got results. During his time there, they never finished outside of the top four – securing Champions League qualification each time.
Arteta was a clearly influential figure, getting the vice captaincy after his first season and being named club captain ahead of the 2014-15 campaign.
That felt like an odd choice from Wenger, who had players who could start ahead of him. And Arteta was becoming injury prone, missing chunks of each season up to that stage with one problem or another.
Yet he was also the man who lifted their first significant silverware for years, captaining them at Wembley as they won the FA Cup in 2014.
Arteta was also there when they retained the trophy in 2015, even though he had only made 11 appearances all campaign.
The following year was just as bad in that sense, with Arteta playing a total of 14 games as injuries hit again and others moved past him in the pecking order.
He retained the armband, though. It made sense after all. When he did play, it was as the deepest midfielder, ticking play over and ensuring everything ahead of him and behind him worked as it should. It allowed him to instruct with authority from a role where it is necessary.
Pep Guardiola himself thought that position — one he played in himself — would be crucial to his ability as a manager. In 2019 he said: '(Arteta) was an incredible player.
'Normally holding midfielders have a vision on the pitch. When you are a striker you think of the goals and keepers save it, but the holding midfielder is an incredible lesson during your period as a football player to learn what happens.
'You go to school, you read it, you understand it completely. And he was so clever in that. More than that, he is an incredible human being and has a work ethic. He's already a manager – he behaves as a manager and that is why we are so satisfied to have him here.'
As Sportsmail reported on Monday, Arteta's voice when it came to tactics also made him important to Wenger.
Arteta was known as a teacher's pet and would discuss tactics with his manager – often chiming in with his thoughts at half-time when he wasn't playing. While he was not leading sessions or anything similar, he was doing more off the pitch than on it –as much coach as a captain.
Wenger himself was clearly impressed, backing Arteta when he was being discussed as a potential replacement for the French manager.
'He was a leader, has good passion for the game, knows the club and knows what is important at the club,' Wenger said.
'Overall he has the qualities but I don't want to influence that publicly.
'I believe it is important they make their choice in an objective way and after made that decision I will support him.'
Arteta himself laid out his managerial philosophy during an interview in 2014, showing that he was thinking about it in his playing days.
He said: 'My philosophy will be clear. I will have everyone 120 per cent committed, that's the first thing. If not, you don't play for me. When it's time to work it's time to work, and when it's time to have fun then I'm the first one to do it, but that commitment is vital.
'Then I want the football to be expressive, entertaining. I cannot have a concept of football where everything is based on the opposition.
'We have to dictate the game, we have to be the ones taking the initiative, and we have to entertain the people coming to watch us. I'm 100 per cent convinced of those things, and I think I could do it.'
Asked about who he had influenced him, he added: 'One is Arsene Wenger, of course – he has a philosophy that he's never going to change because he really believes in it. That is the most important thing, because if you don't really believe in something then you'll just change it after one bad result and drive your players crazy.
'Another is Pep Guardiola, who I've known since I was 15. The way he sees football is always to look ahead, then further ahead, always improving.
'Then there's Mauricio Pochettino – he was my captain at PSG and I always knew he would become a manager.
'He has taken a lot of influence from Marcelo Bielsa, who was his coach with Argentina; they used to talk about things a lot, and now you can see that his teams are really aggressive, both when attacking and defending.
'He takes a lot of risks, the players enjoy playing with him, his decisions are always sound and he's got a good personality. I've admired Pochettino ever since I was young; he really looked after me when I was at PSG as well.'
Clearly his grounding at Arsenal will serve him well now that he is in the dugout. And it might even be to his benefit that, while results have been bad, they've not been on the wrong end of an 8-2 recently.