The concept of the ‘pre-assist’ is so nebulous to be almost meaningless but his national team manager’s elaboration on the theme clarifies the qualities Arthur brings to each team. “This player finds ways out,” he said after a 2-0 victory over the United States last September. “He always finds the best escape, the best pass out. Even if he doesn't provide the assist, he comes up with the pass that will help a player in attack to be found in space.”

There is a deception, therefore, in the number Arthur wears and his starting position to the left of Sergio Busquets. It is not Iniesta he most closely resembles but Xavi, a comparison not lost on the man himself. “I see myself when I see Arthur on television,” Xavi said in the autumn. “He has the Barça DNA. You can already tell by the way he plays, how he moves the ball, the way he thinks, how he makes his turns, he is a very quick thinker.”

The turn, Xavi’s famous ‘Pelopina’, is one way Arthur has managed to be so elusive in cramped spaces. It is usually performed with the instep of the right foot and involves an anti-clockwise turn of anything between 270 and 360 degrees to spin the prospective tackler until he looks like an old man vainly chasing a banknote in the wind. The clockwise turn, led with the outside of the boot, is an occasional variation as it is much more difficult to make the ball stick to the fourth and fifth toes and fifth metatarsal in such a tight turning circle without dislocating an ankle. Simply having it as an alternative, though,is enough to foster uncertainty in his pursuer and buy a second or two.