Three debuts, two new faces, one man the Arsenal fans longed to see above all.
They had been waiting a while, in fairness. William Saliba first arrived in north London in 2019. Arsenal paid £27million for the then-teenage defender. Last night, after three years and three loan spells in France, a competitive bow at last.
You can forgive those who wondered whether this day would ever come.
You can understand why, for some, a first sighting of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko was always going to play second fiddle. While he was away, an almost cultish zeal developed around the 21-year-old Frenchman.