For years it was difficult to work out exactly what Arsenal were trying to do in the transfer market.
As the Gunners sought the recipe for a swift return to the top table of European football, they suffered fatally from an excess of cooks in the kitchen. Just take the centre-back position. At the start of the 2020/21 season the club had as many as nine of them on their books, each bearing the hallmarks of the many differing strategies that had been put in place at the Emirates Stadium.
There was Rob Holding, the £2million signing from Bolton brought in under the Arsene Wenger tradition of bargain-spotting. Shkodran Mustafi, whose purchase was heavily influenced by the stats-based approach of Jaeson Rosenfeld and StatDNA, was also on the books.
Then there was Dinos Mavropanos, the unknown Greek defender spotted by the 'diamond eye' of Sven Mislintat. His compatriot Sokratis had been the type of grizzled veteran preferred by Unai Emery, while David Luiz and Pablo Mari had been brought in via the contacts-based approach favoured by Raul Sanllehi.
There was also Gabriel whose signing last summer had been made on the recommendation of former chief scout Francis Cagigao and this is all before we even begin to mention the situation regarding William Saliba.
Now, though, it looks as if things may finally have changed.
Although many of the acquisitions were frowned upon at the time, Arsenal's summer transfer window of 2021 in which they signed Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Martin Odegaard for a combined total of roughly £150million will probably go down as one of the best in the club's history.
Each individual acquisition has played its part in helping the Gunners once again get to a position where they are challenging for the Champions League places.
So how exactly did Mikel Arteta and Edu get it so right?
Well speaking after the January transfer window, in which Arsenal frustrated many of their supporters by failing to bring in anyone to bolster their top four charge, Arteta gave us something on inkling.
"When we have to replace or improve the squad, it can only be with a player that we are certain of," the Spaniard said.
"First of all, that they're the right person and the right character to join and then they're a player with the quality to straight away impact the performance of the team and our capacity to build a future around him as well."
What is most fascinating about that insight is Arteta's valuation of character over quality.
This was something that was on full display on Thursday night as Arsenal managed a dramatic late comeback to secure a crucial three points over Wolves.
The game started poorly for the Gunners as Gabriel's misplaced pass allowed Hwang Hee-chan in to score inside 10 minutes, which marked the first time they had conceded the first goal at home since August.
In such unfamiliar territory many teams (and Arsenal teams in days past) would have crumbled and even turned on each other, but there was no indication of that in the Gunners' ranks.
In fact, footage released on their YouTube channel later revealed that instead of chastising Gabriel for his error, goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale almost immediately got up patted the Brazilian on the back and tried to get his team going again.
It is this exact characteristic of resilience that was identified by Arteta when he controversially decided to shell out up to £30million on the England stopper in the summer.
"Obviously we needed to identify where we can get better and what we were missing or how we want to mould our experience and our leadership," said the Spaniard said back in November.
"And that is all obviously about personalities and the people you bring into the club, and we thought that Aaron could be very beneficial.
"I watched a lot of clips and moments after he conceded a goal, making a mistake or a difficult moment, and that’s one of the big reasons that we made a decision to sign him because he could cope with those."
Even earlier in Ramsdale's Arsenal career, technical director Edu had also identified the 23-year-old's ability to bounce back from the many tricky situations he has faced so far - such as back-to-back Premier League relegations with Bournemouth and Sheffield United - as a deciding factor in his acquisition.
"If you're talking about Ramsdale, Ramsdale is important as well," the Brazilian said.
"He's English, which in that position is important because we can balance the squad. Good age, and very good, with good experience in the Premier League as well.
"For us it's clear he has a beautiful future because he went through challenging periods, but he's always been through them well. He's so positive, he's such an energetic player, which makes us comfortable to sign him.
"So he's the one who's going to be for the short, the medium and the long-term for our project. That's why we signed him."
By strengthening at goalkeeper, defence and midfield, Arsenal significantly improved their squad last summer, but the crucial and necessary additions do not stop there.
A striker is set to be on the agenda this summer, and this is a decision that could well define the outcome of the project that is underway in North London.
The Gunners have been linked to the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Alexander Isak and Jonathan David among others, but whoever they sign, it's fascinating to note that the player's character will be considered as a deciding factor above all else.
