‘Arsene Wenger has built an Arsenal team who have been crushing the life out of the rest of the Premiership, but it is a brave manager who celebrates September with the prediction that his team will not be beaten all season.
We had some good runs in my time at Liverpool too, but Bob Paisley was not a man given to the grand statement. We were always told by our manager that it was better to keep your mouth shut until after the trophies were presented. Even after a 25-game unbeaten run in 1982 that stretched from late March to early October. Even after Paisley had won six League titles and three European Cups. So this Arsenal manager is either supremely confident or a little too optimistic.
There is a momentum about winning football matches that seized the Liverpool sides I played in and also seems to have taken hold at Highbury. You feel like you can't lose. Step out on that pitch and whatever happens, whoever the opposition are, whatever day of the week, you trust that victory will come from somewhere. The story might vary from Saturday to Saturday but the ending is always the same. It's an exhilarating feeling, but it is dangerous too.
Wenger's record of two titles in six years is very good but he has some way to catch up with Paisley and Sir Alex Ferguson if he wants to step up to join the great managers of modern football. Those two have 13 English titles and four European Cups between them. And it is in the European Cup that Wenger will eventually be judged.’