Arsenal fans were perhaps rightly concerned that their form would drop after Gabriel Jesus' injury at the World Cup. His scintillating start to life in London was mesmeric and proved to be the catalyst for what has gone on to be an incredible first half of the season.
Despite the goals drying up Jesus was still the key to Arsenal's success in attack, moving to create spaces, finding pockets to operate in, making defenders uncomfortable and then dazzling with quick tricks to get out with the ball. It was these sorts of off-the-cuff skills that he had less freedom to perform at Manchester City.
Now at Arsenal and with the No.9 shirt on his back it was the chance to show that he is much more than just a good teammate, he can become the star. Hence, when he was ruled out for a number of months there was understandable fears that Mikel Arteta's men would lose their way.
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Five games and four wins later - only dropping points against genuine contenders at this stage Newcastle - that myth has been well and truly put to bed. Eddie Nketiah, the highly rated Hale End graduate, has found his feet and is performing a role that even Jesus wasn't able to.
His goals, all four in the league of which have come post Qatar 2022, are more akin to a centre forward than to the creative and roaming impact that Jesus had. To this extent it may well be a great partnership to try them out together. Having never been trusted on this scale before Nketiah has grown in stature across the games.
Scoring against Brighton, West Ham and then crucially coming up big twice against Manchester United, Nketiah has, it is fair to say, arrived. His youth record was always outstanding, scoring goals at every level and announcing himself with a strike after 15 seconds on his debut at home.
That was in 2017 though and six years later there have still remained doubts over whether he could cut it at the level needed. His confidence has always been there though and when on loan at Leeds he showed his discontent at not being trusted in the Championship as a youngster, saying: "I'm not happy and have never been happy with just being on the bench. I want to play, I pride myself on being good enough to be on the team, I think I'm good enough to be on the team.
"All I can do is put in the performances when I come on and try and contribute. Think of all the chances I've had, I've done really well. In the two games I've played I've scored, I always want to help the team when I come on. I just want to continue doing well at this level."
Now he's leading the line for his boyhood club and the prediction has come true. Arteta must take some credit for this. 29 of Nketiah's 32 senior Arsenal goals have come under the Spaniard and 19 of those have been in the past two seasons. Jesus isn't ready to come back yet and Arsenal fans may not notice he's gone at the rate that Nketiah is going.
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