For those Arsenal fans out there who fancy a flutter, you can still get a pretty good price of around 5 to 1 for Arsene Wenger to steer the Gunners to a first Premier League title since 2004 and I reckon those odds will drop quickly once the manager adds another couple of new signings to the squad.
If Arsenal do make a good start to the campaign though, as we all expect them to, then there is going to be an absolute dead cert, although whether you can find a bookie to take your bet is another matter, and that is for Wenger and Jose Mourinho to have a public spat with each other. It could even happen as soon as next week ahead of the Community Shield clash.
It is not just the the two coaches do not like each other, although that seems pretty obvious, but that both have a burning desire to win and are standing in the way of each other´s goals. So maybe the Frenchman is now looking at Man United as a potential problem as well because he has laid into their extravagant transfer policy since the departure of Ferguson, as reported by Sky Sports.
Although he did not mention Louis van Gaal by name, Wenger clearly had the Dutchman in mind when he suggested that the Old Trafford club had abandoned it´s former policy of bring through young players and were simply flinging barrowloads of cash at every perceived problem, while he proudly declared that Arsenal had not done the same despite our financial position having improved a lot.
He said, “We want to continue to combine stronger financial resources with faith in our philosophy and policy.
“That means we want to continue to give chances to young players and build the players from inside our club with our culture.
“Afterwards, if we can buy the exceptional players, we can compete today. But that will not be the basis of our policy.
“Most of the clubs who have been successful are clubs who have done that well. You can take Barcelona or Man United, who had a generation and built their success on players who came from within.
“These are our values and it is our DNA and it’s important we keep that.
“With United’s success they have created huge financial resources and today there is no patience for them to continue what they did.
“They have the financial resources to go with a different policy. And they do not have available players like Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham inside the club.”
I know that a lot of United fans are concerned at the new direction their club is taking and van Gaal has faced questions from the press about it many times and may well feel that he has to defend himself again. So has Wenger picked his first fight of the year before the Premier League season has even started? And if so, will he win it?