Well, well, well. Jose Mourinho has failed to last more than a few seasons in charge of the same club. Who’d have thunk it?

It’s not like he has previous for taking over a team, splashing big in the transfer market and working his psychological magic to motivate his troops to a few trophies, before his squad grow tired of his childish, egotistical, hypocritical ways and his soul-destroying footballing ‘philosophy’ and can’t wait to get rid of the c*nt. Oh wait …

Good riddance I say, and no, English football won’t miss his ‘character’ at all. Not one little bit. So I hope Manchester United, or any other top-flight club thinking of giving him a call think again. He may bring you silverware in the short-term but he’ll stink the place out eventually. He always does. The bad news as an Arsenal fan is that Chelsea will now start to win games more regularly and won’t get relegated, but I suppose we can’t have it all.

But from Mourinho, to the manager he fragrantly wishes he was more like, and who’s respect and one-club longevity he craves, Arsene Wenger, and the boss held his pre-Manchester City press conference this morning, revealing the latest team news and discussing much more besides.

Pointing out the fact the City game was still a few days away yet, Arsene explained Alexis Sanchez has a glimmer of hope of being ready to return from his hamstring injury and there are no fresh concerns otherwise. He said:

We are quite far from the game but at the moment, everybody who played against Aston Villa is available for Monday night and there are one or two possible comebacks. Maybe there is a slight chance for Alexis to be in the squad again but it is too early to be sure about it. He (Sanchez) is running but not participating in full training.

Given how well I thought Theo Walcott performed in Sanchez’s left-sided position at Villa Park last time, plus Joel Campbell’s industrious contribution on the right, I wouldn’t take any risks at all with our Chilean, despite the opposition being City, who remain the team I think are our biggest rivals in the chase for this season’s title.

We have a busy period after the City game and the last thing we need is for Sanchez to return too soon, suffer a relapse and be ruled out of the festive fixtures. I’m sure Arsene will make the right call and when asked if it would be him who made the call and not the player, he said with a smile:

Yes, because he (Sanchez) says he’s always ready.

Meanwhile, he was also asked about his transfer plans for the upcoming January transfer window and offered:

We are open-minded. We are not the only ones who can decide about the speed of the transfers because we have to adapt to the availabilities and the speed of negotiations and the willingness of clubs to sell. We are open to do something because we are short.

Amidst all the talk of a new defensive midfielder and perhaps even a new forward, it’s easy to overlook the fact we also have a bit of an issue at right-back. Clearly Hector Bellerin is first-choice, as he would be in any team in the world, but his back-up, Mathieu Debuchy, went on record recently as saying he wants talks with Arsene over his playing time.

Which is understandable, as he obviously needs to play regular first-team football to stand a chance of forcing his way into the France squad for the Euros in his home country next summer. So if the boss decides to grant Debuchy a move away, we’ll need a new right-back. Off the top of my head, my choice would be Bruno Peres from Torino.

He’s a lightening-fast, attacking full-back who’s very comfortable in possession and crucially, also a very good defender. Here’s a video showcasing both his defending and attacking, including a quite astonishing goal against Juventus at the end …

Back with more from the boss’ presser on Friday.

See you then.