So long, Eduardo.

Arsenal’s resident fox in the box is finally gone, sold to Shakhtar Donetsk for a reported fee of £6m. When Dudu arrived at Arsenal a few years ago, it showed a different edge to Arsene Wenger’s transfer policy. Eduardo was established, albeit relatively unknown in the English Premier League, had a proven track record, and wasn’t a small, pacy central midfielder. He was a surgeon. A clinical finisher who converted in a way that, frankly, most Arsenal players couldn’t. He was a true striker. A true goal-scorer.

We saw the culmination of Arsene’s mind with Eduardo’s addition to the squad. All the one-touch passing, all the beautiful build-ups finally came to something when the diminutive (but never outmuscled) Dudu found space in the box. Eduardo was scoring spectacular goals, his magnificent bicycle kick against Manchester City in the 2007/08 season dropped jaws across England, and Arsenal looked as dangerous as ever.

Then the injury.

There’s no need to rehash it, I just want to reflect on the impact it had; I want to use it to remember Eduardo the way he should be remembered. Eduardo converted 23.5 percent of his shots before the injury against Birmingham in 2008. It was that incredible conversion rate, that irrefutable influence he had on the game that I believe ultimately led to his injury. Arsenal weren’t toothless when Eduardo was in, and that’s why the brutish decision was made that he had to be taken out. It’s the dark side of football, the side that us Arsenal fans are far too familiar with these days, and while the offender only missed a few games out of suspension, Eduardo’s career was permanently altered. When Dudu came back, he converted only 6.3 percent of his shot attempts.

But Eduardo came back, that fight alone is worth applauding. Eduardo did the impossible, working tirelessly for over a year on rehabilitating his leg, both legs in fact (I’ll never forget watching Portuguese-language rehab videos of Eduardo, bouncing on a trampoline and firing passes back to a coach with both legs as I smiled from ear-to-ear), and returned to the Arsenal side almost a year later to the date, scoring twice in the FA Cup before leaving with a hamstring injury. We would all come to familiarize ourselves with the little injuries, the ones we hope Aaron Ramsey is young enough to overcome after a similar injury last season, but it’s my hope that injuries aren’t what define Eduardo.

His heart. His spirit. His determination. All the things Arsene Wenger uses to describe our team, often incorrectly, really did apply to Eduardo. He embodied the effort that was often lacking from the rest of our squad, he embodied the spirit of our team and our fans. Eduardo could’ve (and probably should’ve) been an Arsenal legend if it weren’t for that injury, and I hope with all my heart that he rediscovers his goal-scoring form in Ukraine, the form he flashed for us over the past two seasons when he wasn’t on the injury table. Eduardo should score goals. Goals like this one. The world deserves to watch them.

All the best at Shakhtar, you will be missed at Arsenal.