Not since Mesut Ozil had an Arsenal signing garnered such excitement and anticipation among the Gunners faithful like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Arriving at the back end of the January transfer window in 2018, Aubameyang rocked up at the Emirates with a huge reputation having been firing in goals at a rapid rate for Borussia Dortmund. The Gabon international spent his time in Germany going toe-to-toe with Robert Lewandowski for the Golden Boot award, so Arsenal landing his signature felt like a statement of intent.
Aubameyang was the final signing of Arsene Wenger's illustrious 22-year reign in charge and shortly after his signing was confirmed, he was quick to liken himself to a player who was arguably Wenger's best signing; Thierry Henry.
In his very first interview as an Arsenal player, Aubameyang boldly compared himself to the iconic Frenchman while explaining why the Gunners appealed to him.
"I think the club has such a big history and great players like Thierry Henry," he told A rsenal.com. "He's an example for us strikers. I'm really happy, like I said before.
"He was fast and scored a lot of goals. He's really an example. I'm a fast player and I score goals too, like Henry a little bit. But as I said, I have to work a lot more."
It was certainly a bold strategy to mention himself in the same breath as Arsenal's record goalscorer, but for a while, many may have seen where he was coming from.
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Aubameyang's Arsenal career got off to a flyer, with a debut goal against Everton kicking things off. The former Dortmund ace managed to bag 10 goals for the Gunners in the 2017/18 league season, which is a stellar tally considering he didn't make his first appearance until early February.
Under the guidance of Unai Emery, Aubameyang continued to shine in the 2019/19 campaign and though the Gunners narrowly missed out on Champions League football, their talisman shared the Golden Boot award with Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane at the end of the season.
Much like Henry was, Aubameyang was a man for the big occasion in Emery's only full season in charge. The forward bagged goals against the likes of Tottenham and Manchester United.
Mid-way through the following season, Emery lost his job as Arsenal's form drastically declined and he was soon replaced by Mikel Arteta, who would make clear pretty quickly he wasn't one to suffer fools gladly, with Mesut Ozil swiftly exiled from the first-team fold.
Initially, things seemed to be going well between Aubameyang and his new manager. The Gabon ace, who was captain of the club at the time, was still finding the net at a regular rate even after the three-month break from football during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Aubameyang almost single-handedly guided the Gunners to the 2020 FA Cup, Arteta's first major honour as a manager. The image of the two arm in arm, lifting the trophy, was one that many Arsenal fans hoped would define the next few years.
Things looked even brighter when Aubameyang agreed to put pen to paper on a lucrative new deal to extend his stay at the Emirates in the summer of 2020. Few could have predicted the striker would be gone in less than 18 months.
Aubameyang's Arsenal demise seemed to happen slowly and then all at once. After returning late from a mid-season trip to France, the goalscorer was initially supsended and exiled from first-team training. That soon turned to being cast off entirely, as he joined Barcelona nearly four years to the day he arrived in north London.
A year and four months after he signed a mega £350,000-a-week deal at Arsenal, which was meant to keep him at the Emirates club for three seasons, Aubameyang was allowed to leave the Gunners and join the LaLiga giants for free.
If leaving under such a cloud wasn't damaging enough to Aubameyang's Arsenal legacy, the manner in which he forced through his Emirates exit was a final insult to the Gunners faithful.
The ex-AC Milan ace actually took it upon himself to fly to Barcelona before either clubs had agreed that a transfer would materialise. His arrival stunned those at the top of the hierarchies at the Emirates and the Camp Nou.
Seemingly on a mission to burn any last Arsenal bridges he may have had, Aubameyang soon left Barcelona to return to the Premier League and ply his trade for the Gunners' fierce London rivals Chelsea.
It is Arteta who has had the last laugh however, with Aubameyang's time in west London an unmitigated disaster so far.
