Wenger: tonight it's points, not panache

IF, AS Arsène Wenger suggested yesterday, his personality and demeanour are reflected in his team’s style of play, then he is a lot edgier than he’d like to admit ahead of tonight’s Premiership head to head with Man Utd at Highbury.

The champions have taken one point and scored one goal in their last two games against Blackburn and Aston Villa and the hesitancy displayed in both has been starkly at odds with the swashbuckling swagger with which Man Utd have torn Liverpool and Newcastle apart in their most recent Premiership outings.

Though they were 220 miles apart yesterday, Wenger and Alex Ferguson were preaching similarly confident messages. The latter, however, had recent evidence to legitimise it.