In a record summer splurge totalling £225.41million, Manchester United's best investment may be a signing they did not pay a fee for.
Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer all spoke to Christian Eriksen to gauge how receptive he would be to joining United and they might all glance enviously at Erik ten Hag, the United manager who has the privilege of coaching the Danish aesthete.
Eriksen will turn 31 on Valentine's Day and United supporters are already smitten. They have not had a deep-lying midfielder blessed with such vision since Michael Carrick in his last fulfilling season six years ago and it has to be a matter of time until the Stretford End airs a paean to Eriksen.
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He was at the centre of United's eight-pass, 10-second routine in their own third at Leicester and Eriksen is already integral to the identity Ten Hag gradually implements. Eriksen has quickly dispelled the notion he would effectively replace Juan Mata, restricted to a bit-part role in his last three years at Old Trafford, by starting all six of their games this term.
The onus is no longer solely on Bruno Fernandes to break the lines. Ten Hag has had no issue in accommodating Fernandes and Eriksen in the same team, playmakers at the base and apex of midfield who skilfully breached Arsenal's defence time and again.
Where once Fernandes was over-burdened with playmaking tasks, it has now been alleviated by Eriksen. Eriksen found Fernandes with probing, vertical passes for United's first two goals against Arsenal and Fernandes located Eriksen to square for Marcus Rashford.
"I spoke to him about how he sees me as a player and where he sees me," Eriksen said of Ten Hag five weeks ago.
"Obviously, he puts the team out and picks who's gonna start, and then from there on you adapt to whoever you're playing with. But I can't see any problem playing with Bruno, no."
A serious Arsenal side turned up at United for the first time since the 'Invincibles' 18 years ago yet the Gunners have loose cannons in defence. Granit Xhaka and Albert Sambi Lokonga were a porous shield for a gettable defence and were picked off by Eriksen and Fernandes.
Just as impressive as his one-touch passing was Eriksen's shadowing of fellow playmaker Martin Odegaard off the ball seconds before he got on it for the second goal. Odegaard failed to replicate that intensity when United regained possession and by the time he realised the ball was rolling towards Eriksen, he was off the pace. Ten seconds later, Arsenal were 2-1 down.
"Eriksen does the horrible stuff as well," Troy Deeney said in an engaging analysis on Match of the Day 2, "which I think any kid - watching in the morning, hopefully - will see." Every day is a school day, watching Eriksen.
He has started six games in 28 days for United, quashing understandable concerns about his durability. Eriksen excelled lower down the ladder at Brentford, a halfway house to a more luxurious property. The hostile welcome at his old manor last month was cause for renovation.
Ten Hag erred in playing Eriksen in two positions he is not synonymous with in the defeats to Brighton and Brentford. Ten Hag justified his role as a 'false nine' in the former as Eriksen had apparently played there in the Ajax academy, a misguided and idealistic strategy.
United got a dosage of reality at Brentford with Eriksen positioned deeper than Fred and they swiftly negotiated a deal for Casemiro. It is testament to Eriksen's class he has rallied in the last four games with Scott McTominay keeping vigil, rather than the specialist Casemiro.
If Eriksen's role in the opening goal against Liverpool and the first two past Arsenal were pivotal, he was prominent in assisting Rashford's clincher on Sunday, punishing Arsenal's high line he had already pierced with the precision of an archer. That emboldened him to charge on the front line for the third goal.
If the choice was between Eriksen and Frenkie de Jong from the outset, the starstruck would have opted for De Jong. United have worrying form for that and the manner of their interminable pursuit of De Jong was the only drawback of their summer transfer window.
As "disgraceful" as Barcelona might have behaved (in the words of the United football director John Murtough) and insurmountable a hurdle the player's wage deferral was, De Jong wanted to stay in Catalonia and his fiancee was unreceptive to moving to Manchester.
Eriksen was totally invested in moving to United, the club that first fluttered their eyelashes at him when he was still a teenager at Ajax. "He's a good player," Sir Alex Ferguson said in 2012, "a typical Ajax player who is good on the ball but we already knew that."
Ferguson, in attendance on Sunday, must have wished he managed Eriksen, too.
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