The manager speaks on New Year's Day

Of course, after a draw away to Southampton, Arsène Wenger was asked about how the team can be strengthened in the transfer window.

And his answer was - for Wenger, anyway - quite clear.

I will be active [in the January window] yes. We are looking everywhere. We are open-minded. We want to strengthen the squad everywhere.

Thierry Henry was specifically mentioned, as Gervinho will leave for international duty after tonight.

At the moment we are not on that case.

This last sentence has been interpreted as a clear no to a third spell for Arsenal's record goalscorer. But as (almost) always, Wenger picks his words too carefully for anything to be ruled out.

Another almost blunt response in the post-match interview was addressing perhaps the most talked about deficiency in the Arsenal squad of the last few seasons: the mental state of the team.

Maybe we thought we scored seven against Newcastle and we’d score seven today. It was a game of magnitude today against a highly motivated Southampton side but I thought [our problem] was more mental than physical.

Never mind the form of goalscorers or the coaching of defenders, both so often criticised by Gooners. If we'd get new or existing Arsenal players to respect every opponent, we'd see a better team.

I expect that to be the basis for another upturn in transfer rumours before the weekend. There's nothing like a bad performance for the media to suggest easy fixes - for you to click on.