Emile Smith Rowe lost two years of his Arsenal career – but Fulham transfer offers Croydon De Bruyne a route back to the top.

Mikel Arteta currently enjoys near-unanimous support among Arsenal fans, but that wasn’t always the case. During the dystopian era, “Project Reboot”, in December 2020, the Spanish’s approval ratings were at an all-time high.

Heading into a Boxing Day meeting with Chelsea that season, Arsenal slumped to 15th place, without a win in seven games. With fans on the verge of rioting, defeat to their London rivals could well have spelled the end of Arteta’s reign.

The omens weren’t great ahead of the pivotal game either, with Gunners Brazilian duo Willian and David Luiz ruled out through injury. The former’s absence forced Arteta into a change, with academy graduate Emile Smith Rowe used as a number 10, while youngsters Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka came in as insiders.

It was bold, but it proved to be a turning point in Arteta’s coaching journey. The energetic front four produced one of their side’s most coherent attacking displays of the campaign, Alexandre Lacazette, Granit Xhaka and Saka all scoring in a 3-1 victory.

At the center of it all, however, was Smith Rowe. Appearing wherever he was called upon across the forward line and showing a refreshing degree of verve and fearlessness, his introduction to the starting XI was the spark that Arteta’s project desperately needed.