It seems to me nowadays that, regular as clockwork, Arsenal face one of their legendary former sons every season in the Champions League. And true to form, this season is no different. Just as Vieira, Henry and Pires have returned to a rapturous reception, so too will Eduardo tomorrow night at the Arsenal Stadium.

Times like these, I really want to put together a commission to study how the draws are made for the Champions League, because this to me is one heck of a coincidence. But having said that, it is a very welcome one. As the doom and gloom factor has set in already this season, annoyingly early after a set of dodgy results and the usual deluge of injuries, tomorrow night we get the chance to celebrate and applaud Eduardo’s past contributions, and say the kind of goodbye that we fans never get to. And that can’t be all bad.

Too much of Eduardo’s three-year Arsenal career will be sadly connected to one dark day in Birmingham, but this should not overshadow all else about him. This was a striker whose red-hot streak of late 2007/early 2008 produced a strike rate that had Eddie mentioned in the same breath as Wrighty for his predatory finishing. This was also a striker whose return to fitness was inspirational, as the first victim of the horror tackles that now demand so many column inches in the media.

Twenty-two goals over three years may not sound that much on paper, but when some are of the kind of quality I got to witness on a drenching FA Cup afternoon against Burnley, you can forgive any notion of profligacy. That Eduardo never really rediscovered his form is undeniable; while he chipped in with the goals in 2009/10, in retrospect it made sense for him to move on with the arrival of Chamakh and the continued development of Vela.

Having said that, Eduardo was a player I didn’t want to see go, and a big part of that stems from the emotional investment that we all made into wishing him back to fitness, in the same way that we do for Ramsey now. Tonight, amid the pageantry of the Champions League, we get to pay homage to a player who came through what no player should have to, and I hope he gets the post-match standing ovation that he deserves.

As long as he doesn’t score a hat-trick.