A "rotten apple" was how Germany great Matthias Sammer described Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang prior to his move to Arsenal. But rather than spreading poison to the rest of the barrel on Sunday at the Emirates, the striker was only too happy sharing goals around.
Chasing his first hat trick in England, Aubameyang selflessly stepped aside to allow Alexandre Lacazette to score a late penalty and put the seal on a 3-0 win over Stoke. "I knew that Laca is back," he said. "I'd scored twice so I let him shoot: it was good for his confidence".
In terms of shared Arsenal penalties, it wasn't exactly as iconic as Robert Pires' bungled attempt to pass to Thierry Henry against Manchester City in 2005 but in a world where strikers are supposed to be selfish machines with tunnel vision when it comes to scoring goals and inflating their career tallies, it was still a refreshing moment. And one which spoke of a renewed spirit in the dressing room, perhaps.
There hasn't been a shortage of stories about the detrimental effect Alexis Sanchez apparently had on team morale before his move to Manchester United. It is encouraging, therefore, that his effective replacement (if not technical replacement, as Henrikh Mkhitaryan swapped clubs after all) has gone about making friends quickly. As well as letting Lacazette have the spot-kick, Aubameyang was the first on scene to congratulate him too.
Maybe the trouble will come further down the line. If Aubameyang scores 35 goals next season and has his heart set on a move to Real Madrid, then Arsenal may come to experience some of the same emotions that led to his acrimonious departure from Dortmund. But so far, a player who arrived in January with a reputation as a troublemaker has made the smoothest of starts to his Arsenal career.
A return of five goals in six games is the most prolific of any new Arsenal signing in Premier League history. Not that there was a great deal of doubt but Sunday confirmed that if there is to be a revitalisation of Arsenal, Aubameyang will be at the heart of it.
It is a cruel twist of fate that Aubameyang is cup-tied for Arsenal's Europa League campaign; doubly so that UEFA is discontinuing the rule after this season. But he can still be useful and in his generous act at the end of a largely irrelevant Premier League game against Stoke, Aubameyang may have a made a valuable, if almost imperceptible, contribution to Arsenal's European endeavours.
Sunday was Lacazette's first game since picking up an injury on Feb. 10, prior to which he had scored only once in 13 matches. The France forward will be Arsenal's first choice centre-forward in Europe and stroking home a penalty was the perfect little confidence boost he needed ahead of Thursday's quarterfinal, first leg against CSKA Moscow.
It wasn't just Aubameyang's guiding hand behind everything, either. The score was still 0-0 when Lacazette came on and made an appreciable difference to the match, replacing Danny Welbeck as Aubameyang shifted to the left to accommodate the Frenchman. The result was a marked difference from a laborious and depressing first half which saw Arsenal struggle to create chances in front of a half-empty, and deeply apathetic, Emirates Stadium.
Something will have to be done to reengage a disillusioned supporter base. The one obvious solution is staring everyone in the face but Arsenal need to find the courage to sack their manager, and haven't shown much sign of it yet. In lieu of that, new energy will need to be shown on the pitch and while the Lacazette-Aubameyang dynamic may be at a nascent stage, the signs were encouraging on Sunday, not least in the way Aubameyang stood aside for the penalty.
If the two can work together in the same starting XI then the goals should fly. Certainly more so than if Arsenal persist with Danny Welbeck, who put in a typically frustrating performance in front of goal on Sunday. "I know they have a good understanding," said Wenger of his two most expensive signings. "I like that, it can only make the team stronger."
Not quite the effect one would expect a bad apple would have.