Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain fastens onto Robin van Persie’s defence-splitting pass, skips round Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson and scores his first Premier League goal. The Emirates Stadium roars with approval in recognition of a cherishable new talent.

It was not always thus.

Arsene Wenger cast a hypnotic spell over eyebrows across much of Goonerland when he lured the latest jewel from Southampton youth academy’s ever-burgeoning crown. For the Wenger Out Brigade, the £12miilion deal last summer felt as if the obdurate Frenchman was now actively baiting them.

Arsenal had flirted with buying the fleet-footed prodigy in the previous transfer window but by the time he signed, the club had been through its worst spell under Wenger’s 14-year reign. If fans weren’t calling for the manager’s head then they were certainly demanding a rethink over his beloved youth policy, starting with the capture of an experienced and proven centre back.

Instead, like a husband tucking into a chocolaty feast in front of a fasting wife, he bought a promising English winger a week short of his 18th birthday. With negativity enveloping the club, the move was met with some predictable yet understandable irritation. A winger, and a callow one at that, surely wasn’t a priority.

But the precocious Oxlade-Chamberlain possesses what this Arsenal team has been crying out for: flair.

Robin van Persie is the only other player in the squad to offer it in abundance. Arsenal have some very neat, tidy and skillful players, but when they go through indifferent spells or face teams that know how to stifle their fluent football they labour at picking through their opposition.

Wengerball: Arsenal manager delighted not to miss out on signing Oxlade-Chamberlain
Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Oxlade-Chamberlain adds another layer to the team’s ability and aesthetics. On top of obligatory pace, he has a type of extra-dimensional vision that great players own. He runs with his head up, instantly interprets opponents’ movement, jinks effortlessly passed markers, uses both feat and executes end-product decisively.

He needs no invitation to take a pop at goal, and can do so with venom. Arsenal crowds, renowned for shrieking “shooooot” as a pathological aversion to comply (now known as Torres Syndrome) spread contagiously through the team, have been begging for some impulsively brassy finishers.

And if it wasn’t already in his make-up, he’s inadvertently learnt from Andrey Arshavin how much fans appreciate midfielders who track back with their opposite numbers.

Of course there will be hype to contend with (especially when England take him to Euro 2012), and he will lose the insouciance of youth in which he presently wallows. But he is already good enough to command a regular spot on the Arsenal team sheet and will be a very exciting player to follow. The Premier League is relatively desperate for players with natural flair compared to seasons gone by.

On this occasion, Wenger was right to let his guts rule everybody else’s heads.

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