As the transfer deadline approached on August 8 there was one final piece of their summer deals for Arsenal to fit into place. It was a piece that the club and the fans knew the squad lacked and it was something that head coach Unai Emery wanted: a defensive leader to the side.

The problem was, in an inflated market, and with Manchester United having just committed £85million to signing Harry Maguire despite balking at the fee a few weeks before, there was little value around with Arsenal’s head of football Raul Sanllehi having already cleverly stretched the club’s budget to structure a number of deals and most notably that of Nicolas Pepe for £72million.

Sanllehi and Arsenal remained on the look-out and although a defender was wanted, in any case, that search intensified after Laurent Koscielny forced his way out. They had made an inquiry at the start of the window for RB Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano but were put off by the huge asking price and did not follow that up and there was interest in Juventus’ Daniele Rugani but, again, that was proving too expensive.

Eventually they decided they were prepared to break away from their strategy of bringing in young players who had potential and value in the future and it was a testimony to Sanllehi that they were prepared to be opportunistic – something Arsenal had failed to be in the past. The average age of their signings this summer had been just under 21 including 18-year-old centre-half William Saliba who was loaned back to St Etienne. But there would be one big exception.