ARSENAL SHOULD SWALLOW PRIDE AND RE-SIGN SONG
Of all the transfers out of Arsenal in the past five years, the one that made the least footballing sense was Alex Song. For various personal and contractual reasons, it was genuinely difficult for Arsene Wenger to resist the departures of Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri.
Gael Clichy was planned in order to let Kieran Gibbs play regularly at left-back while Thomas Vermaelen had become peripheral and a £15 million fee from Barcelona would have represented excellent business if it had been invested in a comparable replacement.
Song, though, disappeared virtually unnoticed in the summer of 2012, despite playing 174 matches for Arsenal in the four preceding seasons.
A fee of £15m for a player who, at 24, was just reaching his prime, and still had three years left on his contract, made limited sense. Yes, questions were being asked about his approach to training and whether he had remained sufficiently disciplined in the holding midfield position, but far worse situations have been resolved internally.
The question now is whether Wenger would be prepared to reconsider. Song seems unlikely to remain at West Ham beyond the end of his loan spell this season and Barcelona will presumably, again, be open to offers. His ability to also provide cover at centre-back should surely make a deal even more appealing to Arsenal.
It probably won't happen but the bottom line is simple enough. Arsenal have problems with their central midfield. Arguably the two best central midfield players in the Premier League this season have been Song and Cesc Fabregas. Having allowed them to develop and make their mistakes as young players at Arsenal, it must be galling for Wenger to see them now so thriving elsewhere. Jeremy Wilson
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SAINTS HAVE THE STRENGTH TO GO MARCHING ON
Ronald Koeman has been keen to avoid any fanciful talk after his club's fine start to the season, but the rest of us have no such compunctions. Could Southampton really break into the top four?
Ridiculous, you say. Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham, with their much larger and more expensive squads, will all surely make their move before long. And yet there remain two factors in Southampton's favour.
Firstly, the fact that they have no European football allows not only greater rest periods, but more time on the training ground, devising specific plans for opponents. And as teams begin to build up video reconnaissance on Koeman's Southampton, those extra few days could prove crucial.
The other factor is that Southampton themselves have a number of players to bring back. Jay Rodriguez is making decent progress from his cruciate injury and should be back before the end of the year. James Ward-Prowse, too. The likes of Harrison Reed, Matt Targett and Sam McQueen are all poised handily on the sidelines.
When the inevitable dip comes later in the season, Southampton have more than enough talent in reserve to weather the storm. Jonathan Liew
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FELLAINI IS A NEW MAN UNDER VAN GAAL
If anything typifies the difference between Louis van Gaal and David Moyes, it is Marouane Fellaini.
The Manchester United midfielder was regarded as all that was wrong about Moyes's brief reign in charge as manager yet, under Van Gaal, Fellaini is enjoying a renaissance.
Moyes has admitted he did not want to make Fellaini his first signing as United manager due to the pair's shared Everton connections and the message it would send out - one which basically said that Moyes could only attract players he had worked with before.
But Fellaini was his first signing and he was a disaster - a square peg in a round hole and a player whose qualities were the opposite to those demanded of a United signing.
When Moyes left Fellaini out of his team for the final game of his reign, against Everton at Goodison Park last April, it was as though the Scot had raised a white flag in his attempts to make the player a success at Old Trafford.
Yet after almost leaving United for Napoli this summer, Fellaini is now grasping the second chance that he has been thrown to him by Van Gaal.
Had he not been injured during the final weeks of the transfer window, Fellaini is likely to have been loaned out or sold, but with the Belgian still in his squad, Van Gaal's pragmatism has ensured that he has found a role in the team.
Fellaini's physical style may jar with many United supporters, but against West Brom on Monday and Chelsea on Sunday, he did a crucial job for Van Gaal.
Fellaini basically used his muscular presence to unsettle United's opponents, at the same time as showing a surprisingly deft touch with the ball, and it was a tactic that worked on both occasions.
Where Moyes was concerned about the reaction generated by selecting Fellaini, Van Gaal only sees the value of selecting the player.
It is horses for courses right now at United and Fellaini is giving Van Gaal the physicality that is crucial against the likes of Chelsea.
At the same time, Fellaini's confidence is growing and, if he rediscovers the form which made him unplayable at times at Everton, Van Gaal and United will be the beneficiaries.
Few would have tipped Fellaini to even make the substitutes' bench for the Manchester derby at the start of the season, but as the trip to Manchester City looms on the horizon, he might just have done enough to earn a place in the team. Mark Ogden
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BRUCE THE MOST UNDER-RATED MANAGER IN THE COUNTRY
There is an idiot-proof measuring tool to determine if a manager is as good or awful as you think he is.
Check where the club he left is 18 months after his departure. If they're in the same position, or better, you've no reason to miss him.
If they're far worse off, you were right to lament his departure, or possibly wrong to have been leading the calls for him to go.
Some of the modern greats support this. See Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson left, Barcelona's relative struggles since Pep Guardiola took a sabbatical or Inter Milan post-Jose Mourinho (okay, Real Madrid are doing okay, but the freakish budget has something to do with that).
At a lower level you can say what you like about Sam Allardyce but, when he left, Bolton, Newcastle and Blackburn, they paid a heavy price.
At which point - ladies and gentleman - I present to you the most underrated manager in the country... Hull City's Steve Bruce.
Look at a selection of the club's Bruce has managed. Look at what happened after he vacated the premises.
Take Huddersfield. Bruce was sacked in October 2000 after a tough start to the season. Huddersfield were relegated in 2001, ended up in administration and would not return to the Championship for another 11 years.
Or Birmingham, where his fortunes fluctuated during his six-year reign, but who fell out of the Premier League after Bruce's exit for Wigan in 2007. How they'd crave the Bruce era at St Andrews now.
Wigan - where Bruce enjoyed two spells and once finished 11th - continued to perform admirably and won the FA Cup under one of his successors, Roberto Martinez, but Dave Whelan had to hire and fire quite a bit and still succumbed to relegation eventually.
And then there is Sunderland, in a perpetual relegation battle ever since Bruce was sacked in 2011.
Bruce is not the most fashionable of names - he is never linked with the elite posts when they're available - but the job he is performing at Hull seems to be taken for granted.
While there are some who argue the qualities of certain managers and players are overhyped 'just because they are English' it is equally true that if Bruce had achieved what he has in this country with the Spanish, Italian or Portuguese equivalent of Hull City he'd be the subject of 2,000-word dispatches detailing his esteemed playing career at one of the world's biggest clubs; his coaching success on modest budgets; the high-profile football friends who speak so highly about him; and (crucially these days, it seems) - what books he reads.
Well, Bruce can go better than that having once dabbled in being an author. In 1999 and 2000 he published 'Striker' and 'Sweeper' to not much literary acclaim but, hey, Pepe Mel's fondness for writing crime fiction was once seen as conclusive evidence he was capable of unlocking the hidden talent of Liam Ridgewell.
Bruce is a likeable chap, too. There are plenty of others who would have their agents calling pundit friends on sofas mentioning new contracts if they earned draws at Arsenal and Liverpool in successive weeks.
Hull fans must pray they keep Bruce for as long as possible. If they endure a tough spell in the near future and ever fancy a change, they need only look at Huddersfield, Birmingham and Sunderland to see what will happen next. Chris Bascombe
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WE'LL ONLY KNOW HOW GOOD WENGER IS WHEN HE'S GONE
For those who have given up believing Arsene Wenger is the manager who will lead Arsenal to the Premier League title again, there was little in the win over Sunderland to suggest they should change their mind.
It has become easier to focus on what Wenger has not managed to do in the last 10 years than to appreciate what he has. Winning the FA Cup should have silenced his detractors, or at least hushed them. Qualifying for the Champions League every year while losing many of his best players is not ignored, but it is frequently forgotten when they persistently fall short in the title race.
Wenger might not win Arsenal the title again. It is certainly difficult to see them doing so this season given the lack of cover at centre-back and the nagging suspicion they still need a dominant defensive midfielder to be able to beat the strongest teams in the crucial games.
For some, Wenger has had long enough trying. His achievements were once sublime, but he has only managed to deliver the minimum expected of him for too long. It is one thing being patient, there has to come a point when you question whether you are stupidly waiting for something that is never going to happen.
Wenger has reached that point with enough people to ensure he is never free from criticism, even if they win.
Not everyone has lost faith. There are some of us who warn changing the manager at Arsenal is just as likely to weaken the club as improve it. A change in the dugout might be tempting because it promises excitement and suggests improvements will be made, but it is also risky and Arsenal are not a club that likes to gamble.
Wenger is consistent in what he guarantees and Champions League football is the foundation of the business model, ensuring Arsenal are profitable while remaining competitive enough to have a realistic chance of winning some sort of silverware every year. It is the stability shareholders cherish, even if some supporters are getting bored.
Arsenal's victory over Sunderland offered gentle reassurance that, while this has not been a good start to the season domestically, the Gunners remain strong enough to finish in the top four. Only if that does not happen can those who want Wenger removed win the argument.
Arsenal are not in a bad state. Even with a full-back playing as an emergency centre-back, even without several key players because of injury or suspension, Arsenal won away from home and kept a clean sheet.
Sunderland are one of the weaker teams, but this should not be used to undermine the result, especially as it came only a few days after another away win over Anderlecht put Wenger's team on the brink of qualifying for the knockout phase of the Champions League.
Wenger cannot go on forever. There will have to come a time when he steps down or is asked to move aside, but do not assume he has been holding Arsenal back when he might just be holding them up.
The problem is none of us will know for sure until he has gone. Luke Edwards
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