Flo Balogun is making knocking Arsenal's top four rivals out of the FA Cup something of a habit for himself.
The 20-year-old started Chris Wilder's side's shock win on penalties over Manhcester United at Old Trafford in the last round and was a substitute as Boro repeated the feat against Tottenham with a giant killing 1-0 victory after extra time on Tuesday night.
As well as securing himself another fantastic piece of experience by helping his loan side get to the quarter finals of football's oldest cup competition, the Hale Ender may have heavily impacted the race for this season's Champions League spots, by tiring out a full strength Spurs side ahead of their crucial Premier League clash with Everton.
However, Balogun's impact on the Gunners' upcoming transfer plans may be even greater.
It's no secret at this point that Arsenal are in the market for a striker in the summer.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang left the club to join Barcelona on a permanent basis last month, while Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah are both expected to depart as well when their contract expires in the summer.
Although Mikel Arteta has insisted that he believes both Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe can play as a number nine, the expectation is still very much that we could see not just one, but two centre forwards arrive at the Emirates this summer.
With this in mind it's worth taking a look at the type of striker Arteta seems to want.
Some of Arsenal's best football under the Spaniard has been played in recent months where the Gunners have played a 4-3-3 with Lacazette up front.
In this system the Frenchman's role is to drop deep to receive the ball and link play to the attacking talents of Arsenal's inside forwards.
Take this example from the Gunners impressive win over fellow top four contenders West Ham in December.
Lacazette drops deep to receive the ball of Gabriel, dragging Craig Dawson out of the Hammers' central defence with him.
The Frenchman then turns and plays a ball through to Martinelli who runs into the space vacated by Dawson, and goes on to finish past Lukasz Fabianski.
As Arsenal seek to find a long-term successor to Lacazette, there were signs on Tuesday night that Balogun could be a player capable of replicating these traits.
Before analysing exactly how, it's worth noting the differences between Arteta's system and how Middlesbrough play.
Chris Wilder is someone who likes to operate with a 5-3-2 set up meaning that Balogun plays in a striking partnership up front much like how he did for Kevin Betsy's under-23 side during the first half of this season. It is thought that this was a big factor in the decision to send the Hale Ender out on loan to the Riverside as the Gunners seek to make his transition from youth to senior football as smooth as possible.
Obviously this is a contrast to the lone front man that the Arsenal first team tend to use.
However, the basic centre forward demands of needing to drop deep and receive the ball are still are still very much placed upon Balogun at Boro.
Take this instance from Tuesday night's game against Spurs for example.
Balogun is up top and notices that Dael Fry is looking to bring the ball out of defence to play it so moves to run into the space in front of the Tottenham back three.
Having received the pass from Fry he then immediately flicks it round left to Neil Taylor to now set Boro off on a quick attack that immediately puts Spurs on the back foot.
Yes, Balogun is not as central as he would be in an Arsenal team managed by Mikel Arteta, but the basic link up play principles are something that he is really adding to his game during his time in the Championship.
As well as being able to replicate what Lacazette offers to the team, there are some signs that Balogun could bring even more attributes to the table as Arsenal's number nine.
Anyone who has seen the YouTube compilations of the Hale Ender dancing his way through Premier League 2 defences this season will be fully aware of just how good a dribbler he is and that has not gone away during his loan spell.
A clip of him turning Spurs' £42.5million summer signing Christian Romero inside out went instantly viral before the full time whistle of last night's encounter.
Aside from being something to delight fans on social media, this also appears to be something that Arteta is keen on bringing to the Emirates.
After their January move for Dusan Vlahovic was unsuccessful, the striker that Arsenal were most heavily linked to was Real Sociedad's Alexander Isak.
A quick scan of the Swede's strengths and weaknesses shows that he is an outstanding dribbler. fbRef ranks him as being in the 90th percentile for dribbles completed among centre forwards in La Liga this season.
If Balogun is able to provide this skill on top of his improving link up play, then it seems that there is every chance the 20-year-old could contribute to the first team at the Emirates next season.
Of course there are areas where the youngster's game could do with a little work.
If he is to succeed in the Premier League then Balogun could probably do with bulking up a bit to deal with the physicality of top flight football.
There was one instance for example, on Tuesday where a clearly vengeful Romero simply bumped the Hale Ender off the ball during a duel. Balogun's reaction was to look around to the referee for a decision or to his manager for support that he probably would have got with the under-23s, but at senior level neither were forthcoming.
But if Arsenal are to strengthen their squad to being one that is capable of hopefully competing in next season's Champions League it is not going to be cheap.
Signing two elite centre forwards will prove costly, particularly given that every club in world football will be aware of how much the Gunners need a new number nine. With this in mind, on the basis of what we've seen in brief glimpses during his loan spell so far, there is plenty to suggest that trusting in Balogun could cut Arsenal's summer shopping list in half and save Edu millions.
