If you leave your best player out, the one whose contract runs out in 16 months, then generally you have to be proved right, even if you have 20 years of credit on which to fall back.
Yet Arsene Wenger’s decision last night to start without Alexis Sanchez looked odd at best. Ten minutes into this game it looked utterly bizarre. Arsenal were as lame and lax as they can be at their worst and they have recently tested the low water mark of that kind of performance.
And once Sanchez did come on, and Arsenal improved immeasurably, it was a decision which looked ever-more incomprehensible.