Arsene Wenger accepts sanctioning the sale of captain Robin van Persie to Manchester United was a “massive gamble”, but has faith his team can recover to mount a successful Premier League campaign.

The Examiner’s football correspondent Liam Mackey is taking a well-earned break floating along the Nile on a dhow to discuss tactics and the riddle of the diamond with the Sphinx. So for the next few weeks we’ve called Allan Prosser from the subs’ bench to mediate over your opinions and give the controversy pot a stir.