A willing tool of the Fifa machine in recent years, it is tempting to write off many of the things Arsene Wenger now says. Fresh from suggesting that the teams who made political statements at this World Cup were cosmically punished by exiting it, that temptation only grew. But his eye for the game itself, the one that so expertly guided Arsenal for so many years, remains as shrewd as it ever was.
"I personally think the team with the best wide players will win this tournament,” he had said at a Fifa technical briefing earlier on Sunday. A matter of hours later, England used their world-class width to devastating effect to down Senegal and book their place in the quarter-finals.
