Despite no mid-week match for Arsenal, there was still plenty to talk about.

We started off with a good ol’ laugh at Paul Merson, who truly believes that Thierry Henry should be Hull manager because he’s ‘British’.

“I’m not having it!” Merson said. “You can give me stick on that. There’s enough British managers out there, come on…off the top of my head, why not Thierry Henry? He’s done his badges, he’s a legend in the game, he’s ripped up the Premier League. If he walked into Hull City he’d give them a lift.”

Okey-dokey.

Laurent Koscielny, Olivier Giroud and Francis Coquelin all put pen to paper and signed on with Arsenal for a few more years.

Arsene Wenger sang the players’ praises, even describing Giroud as a ‘fighter’, saying, “…I believe technically he has improved tremendously and that he has qualities that nobody else has. On top of that, he’s a fighter. He has shown that again against West Brom [Bournemouth and Preston].

“He can have a challenge, face it and put the effort in ready to achieve it. Overall, I think he’s a much more complete player than when he arrived.”

Giroud said that he’s happy with the club and wants to be part of the future. He also revealed that he wants Wenger to stay.

“Yes, obviously. I hope that he is going to stay,” the big striker said. “He built this club and I don’t think he will leave, we hope. So I wanted to [renew] and I think it was the moment for me to sign a new contract with the club and we’re going to hope that he signs himself as well and a couple of other players to the club as well.”

Amusingly, the boss referred to Arsenal’s recent linked with Torino striker, Andrea Belotti, as ‘fake news’. Very topical, boss.

However, it was bad news as he also revealed that Santi Cazorla is ‘far from running’ after undergoing a second surgery.

“He’s far from starting to run again,” Wenger said.

“He had a little procedure, yes, but we have a meeting with the medical people to see what it was.

“Yeah, I hope so [that he’ll be available for the run-in].

“Because once you start to go out [running outside] you have to count six weeks’ preparation. At the moment he’s not at that level, so let’s hope he can come back in the next three or four weeks on the pitch.”

There has been talk of Wojciech Szczesny being sold to Roma on a permanent deal following his second loan spell with the Serie A club and even the goalkeeper doesn’t seem to know where he’ll be next season. However, he trusts Wenger.

“My future? I would also like to know where I will be,” the Poland international admitted.

“The truth is that it’s in the hands of Wenger, the coach and man in whose hands [my career has been] since I was 16.”

A hot topic following Arsenal’s 4-0 win over Swansea on Saturday afternoon was Alexis Sanchez’s strop on the sidelines after he was subbed off for Danny Welbeck in the 79th minute. After the match, Arsene Wenger brushed his behaviour off, claiming that he’s always unhappy to be subbed off since he always wants to play.

“Alexis Sanchez is not injured, he just wanted to stay on the pitch,” the boss said, “I did not want to take a gamble on him.”