Silent Wenger's future still up for debate

Arsene Wenger may have lost his voice before Arsenal's home match with Stoke City tomorrow but the discussion over his future is unlikely to be silenced just yet.

At the end of the season Wenger will be halfway through a two-year contract many Gunners fans felt should never have been handed in the first place to a man who had not won the Premier League since 2004.

The 68-year-old declared during the international break that many of his critics were simply guilty of age discrimination rather than a genuine unhappiness with Arsenal's current position.

North London giants Arsenal will kick off in sixth position, 13 points adrift of fourth-placed local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, and therefore in danger of missing out on the Champions League for a second successive season.

Yet the Gunners can still pin their hopes on emulating Manchester United and qualifying for Europe's elite trophy next term by winning the Europa League.

The visit of second-bottom Stoke is the third in a five-game sequence of home fixtures, with the first leg of the Europa League last-16 clash with CSKA Moscow following on Thursday.

Wenger's throat problems saw assistant manager Steve Bould hastily thrust into media duties, and the former Arsenal defender, who also played for Stoke, his hometown club, was reluctant to take on the Frenchman's mantle of providing intelligent yet often controversial commentary about all aspects of the game.

The only game Bould wanted to talk about was the Stoke one, but he did offer an insight into how Arsenal fans' unrest was perceived from the bench.

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"He's remarkable. Behind closed doors I've never known someone who's as hungry and determined to win football games. It's as big as I've ever seen. He's doing a great job, as far as I'm concerned and has done a great job for an awfully long time."