Leandro Trossard said the Arsenal hierarchy went out of their way to make it clear that they wanted him after the Mykhailo Mudryk saga.
The Gunners had initially looked to sign Ukrainian winger Mudryk in the winter transfer window of 2023, but had the move hijacked by London rivals Chelsea for £88.5million.
They instead turned to the Belgian, who signed from Brighton in January last year for £27million, and has hit the ground running ever since.
Trossard scored 19 goals across all competitions in the previous campaign — Arsenal’s second-highest goal scorer.