Willian took Arsenal fans by surprise with an impressive display on his debut which drove the Gunners to their first win of the Premier League season.
The 32-year-old was played on the right of the front three in a 3-4-3 but constantly drifted off his wing which proved crucial to the side. He ended the game with three assists, one for Alexandre Lacazette, another for Gabriel Magalhaes and a final one for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Alongside his attacking exploits, Willian also took it upon himself to support Hector Bellerin in defence which was key to keeping Aboubakar Kamara and Ivan Cavaleiro quiet during the game.
The Brazilian made his debut with Gabriel at Craven Cottage who also performed well, but manager Mikel Arteta was less worried about what the former Chelsea man could offer to his side.
"They were both really good. For Willian it's a little bit different because he knows the league, the country and is very settled here. So I knew his performance would happen straight away," he said in his post-match press conference.
"For Gabriel, it was a big challenge for him today to come in. He hasn't played football in the last six months and he had a terrific performance."
Willian starting his Arsenal career in such a way has led to understandable optimism for the rest of the campaign, but in his 75 minutes, he provided Arteta with exactly what he needed for the bigger picture for his vision for the club. A reliable option that he can trust to perform at a high level in the Premier League.
Last season, although the Spaniard inherited a talented squad, it was heaped with youngsters. Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli were key players throughout the 2019/20 season with Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah chipping in also, but Arteta admitted he doesn't want to rely on these players as heavily as he did last season.
"I have a lot of faith on all the young talent we have at the football club but we need the right stability and foundations around them to make sure they develop in right way, at the right moment, with the right amount of pressure behind them," Arteta told reporters on Friday [June 26].
"In order to do that, it's a process. If you speed up that process, you risk burning them [out] and we cannot do that. We have some really young players who are playing more football than they probably should be but they are showing great maturity and personality to play in difficult moments which is great for their experience.
"But we need the other players to support them in the right way and that's what we are trying to achieve, this balance to be very competitive but excited about the future ahead of us."
Arteta's desire to stay true to these words were made clear during the restart, and were evident once again at Craven Cottage.
In the first three weeks of the restart last season, Saka start start seven games whilst remaining an unused substitute once. The three-week period that followed saw him start twice, make just one substitute appearance and fail to come off the bench on three occasions.
That was the case again on Saturday [September 12] as Nicolas Pepe was the man to replace Willian but it goes to show that Arteta is keeping the development of his stars of tomorrow in mind. Just next month, Arsenal begin their Europa League campaign and with that will come another relentless run of games through to the winter months.
Without having a proper pre-season for players including Saka, Nketiah, Nelson, Smith Rowe and Willock, using the start of the season for the more senior players to set the tone could help his youngsters build on those foundations in weeks to come.
Following last season, anticipation surrounding Arsenal's next generation is high, but with Willian displaying the exact qualities Arteta highlighted on his arrival, this will help ease those plans, rather than having them rushed.
