Football, on a rare occasion for Arsenal fans this season, could provide a blessed relief from the saga surrounding the futures of their manager Arsene Wenger and his star duo of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.

With reports going different ways each day, with the latest suggesting that Premier League rivals, namely Chelsea and Manchester City, are looking into the option of a move for the Chilean after comments he made about playing in a winning side whilst on international duty, but wanting to remain in London.

Those quotes will not have gone down well with Wenger and he will, of course, have been prepared for that line of questioning at his pre-Manchester City press conference at the London Colney training ground on Thursday morning.

Given the size of the media team at Arsenal and the atmosphere at the club this season, it perhaps came as a surprise to many that the Frenchman decided to bat away the questions on Sanchez’s remarks with a small quip, simply stating “there is only one team in London.”

The response was met with instantaneous uproar on social media from Gunners fans, although that’s hardly surprising. Wenger could donate a year’s wages to charity and would still get hammered by someone on Twitter for doing so.

While fans of opposing teams ridiculed the remarks and those of an Arsenal persuasion fumed at his response to the situation, the man himself will have been decidedly please with how things went.

The comments, as well as giving many a laugh, showed two things regarding the state of things at Arsenal.

The former Monaco boss has always worked the press well. He has a fantastic relationship with those that cover the club on a regular basis, especially within the written media, but to a point where everyone remembers their place, the journalists still hold him to account and he knows exactly how to play them.

Wenger is regularly a few minutes late to his press conferences, nothing new there, however on Thursday morning he left reporters waiting much longer than usual, thus beginning his mind games.

From there he was in control, and given the way in which he manages the media that was not going to change. His reply to questioning on Sanchez was brief, received with a laugh from those gathered and softly followed up, 1-0 Arsene.

Whilst that showed, despite all that has happened, the 67-year-old has still got it when it comes to the press, the fact he went with a little joke lets on even more.

Wenger knows exactly how the whole media circus works. He knows those comments will be remembered by most journalists for years to come, therefore, he would not be making them without the confidence that he knows what’s going on with his main man. While many fans raged at his response, it should give them the same confidence their manager is enjoying.

Many fans feel Wenger has lost his touch and should be out the door, but with one little joke on Thursday morning he may have just proved them wrong.