Take it easy against Arsenal, Neal.

It was the (half-joking) request by a Gunners goalscoring legend which will long be remembered by Albion fans.

Thierry Henry put in the request on behalf of his old club when interviewing Neal Maupay on Sky Sports after Albion’s draw at Crystal Palace.

The exchange between a great French goal-getter of the past and, who knows, one of the future was a delight to watch.

Maupay’s slightly shy and starstruck reaction as he realised he was talking to his idol has become a huge hit on social media and YouTube.

It will have done wonders for public perception of a complex character many will only have known as a feisty, fired-up figure out on the pitch.

This was the Maupay those of us who have spoken to him away from battle have got to know.

Out in the middle, his all-round contribution to the cause has never been in doubt or questioned.

It has sometimes been harder to say good things about his finishing, Graham Potter believes that scrutiny – or that emphasis - has not helped the former Brentford man.

Albion’s head coach said: “I think, and Neal alluded to this after the game, he went through a process last year, a difficult season.

“You guys in the media say all you have to do is just score and everything is going to be fixed but the finger of blame gets pointed at the striker and then all of a sudden we need a new striker.

“But there is a human being there that has to deal with that and it is not easy.

“Then there is a lockdown and you can’t see your friends and your family, but still have to perform at that highest level in a pressure situation.

“So again the human being in me thinks. ‘That can be quite tough to go through’.

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“He’s only in his second season in the Premier League, he has come from the Championship.

“When you hear that Jamie Vardy goes one goal in 12 matches, all of a sudden it’s not so strange that maybe Neal Maupay doesn’t score as many as we all think.

“But, at the same time, he has scored goals for us.

“He has contributed to what the team has done in terms of performance, last year as well, so he has probably gone away in the summer, reflected a lot, learned a lot about himself, grown as a person.

“It’s part of maturing and he has come back with a nice mentality and we are really pleased for him.”

Maupay scored two winning goals against Arsenal two seasons ago, the second of them the more famous.

He capped a bad-tempered affair aa football returned to the Amex with the winner in added time which changed Albion’s season.

By the time the teams met at the Emirates at the end of last term, his season had been ended by a ban following his furious reaction to a red card at Wolves. He well and truly lost it that afternoon.

As many more people now know, that reaction was totally at odds to Maupay when he is separated from the battle, even if only by five or ten minutes.

Potter said: “He’s a fighter. Like us all, he is not perfect but he does a lot of things for the team. and his team-mates appreciate that.

“He’s an interesting character. He’s a different character but you need that in a team as well.

“You can’t have everybody the same because it’s boring.

“The diversity amongst us is part of our strength and the more we get to know Neal, the more he is with us and his team-mates get to know him and he knows them, the better the relationship is.

“I know he is enjoying his football.

“He is enjoying being part of the team, he is enjoying his time here at the club, and long may that continue.”