Having kept Arsenal in the hunt for silverware on Thursday night with a Europa League final against Chelsea to look forward to, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang demonstrated his world-class quality against Burnley on Sunday.
He finished top scorer in Germany during his last full Bundesliga season with Borussia Dortmund and here in the Premier League he has finished top of the pile (together with Mohamed Salah and Saido Mane) after his first full season too.
To score 22 goals in this league is no mean feat; to do so in a team like Arsenal - who have struggled for consistency in the latter stages of the season - is a mammoth achievement.
Aubameyang is exactly the kind of player who should lead the way for Arsenal's future. He is a rare gem in the Arsenal squad, someone who can genuinely be regarded as the best in his position anywhere in the world. At a time when Arsenal fans would happily swap about half of their squad, the Gabon captain and fellow striker Alexandre Lacazette give Unai Emery a solid, dependable foundation to build on.
Although Lacazette was absent against Burnley, Aubameyang still thrived. He did so in the second half in the presence of a strike partner in the shape of Eddie Nketiah. The youngster replaced fellow academy graduate Joe Willock and immediately went up top, helping Aubameyang occupy the two central defenders he bothered all afternoon. He deserved his late goal for the ebullience of his cameo.
From as early as the opening few minutes, Aubameyang was at it. He aimed a Henrikh Mkhitaryan free kick onto the frame of the goal and forced another good stop from Tom Heaton.
There may have been a stroke of luck in the making of the first goal but Aubameyang was alert enough to capitalise. Jack Cork made an uncharacteristic error, coughing up possession in a dangerous area with a stray pass backwards, and Aubameyang pounced.
He had time to think about the finish, not always a good thing in Aubameyang's world, but he made no mistake. He is in confident form having laid waste to Valencia with a hat-trick at Mestalla on Thursday.
The first one bore some Thierry Henry-esque hallmarks in the pace of the run and the timing of the finish. The second was one the World Cup winner would have been proud to call his own too.
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Alex Iwobi deserves great credit for getting his head up in the box and picking out a stunning pass to the back post. The volley was sumptuous and set Arsenal on the path to victory. He should have put the game to bed and earned himself consecutive hat-tricks shortly after, but he somehow contrived to put the ball wide when it was easier to score.
The devil in the detail - however - is the Gunners' vulnerability elsewhere. The two-goal lead didn't last long with Ashley Barnes nodding in from close range. Arsenal failed to clear time and again with Shkodran Mustafi - an Arsenal villain in the eyes of his own supporters currently - letting his man slip to score easily.
There were other opportunities for Burnley, particularly in the first half, when Matt Lowton should have scored off a Dinos Mavropanos mistake and Chris Wood hit the post. By half time, you'd have had trouble identifying the team in the higher reaches of the table. And thanks to that Barnes goal, it was a lot less comfortable for Arsenal than it should have been.
Barnes was one of five Burnley players booked on the day in a game which threatened to simmer over. These are the kinds of challenges that put paid to many Arsenal ambitions under Arsene Wenger but Emery's team stood tall and took their medicine.
It was far too late of course to do anything about the Champions League places; that ship sailed last week. But they will have a chance to rectify that once Chelsea are confronted in Baku at the end of the month.
After that there are likely to be alterations to the Arsenal squad. Too many have wilted through the run-in as the top four escaped their clutches. But not Aubameyang. He might have missed a crucial spot-kick against Spurs back in March that might have altered Arsenal's Premier League fortunes but that was a mere blip in the story of his season. If Arsenal had more players like him - playing to their potential most weeks - then they would be a lot better off.