England's wide men hold the key to beating France

A willing tool of the Fifa machine in recent years, it is tempting to write off many of the things Arsene Wenger now says. Fresh from suggesting that the teams who made political statements at this World Cup were cosmically punished by exiting it, that temptation only grew. But his eye for the game itself, the one that so expertly guided Arsenal for so many years, remains as shrewd as it ever was.

- BEN BURROWS

"I personally think the team with the best wide players will win this tournament," he had said at a Fifa technical briefing earlier yesterday. A matter of hours later, England used their world-class width to devastating effect to down Senegal and book their place in the quarter-finals.

It was the third goal of the three here that illustrated it best, Phil Foden finding Bukayo Saka to score, from one wide man to the other, the Arsenal star lifting into the middle of the goal to seal a win that was forged on the fringes.

There is reason to Wenger's thinking. More than half of all the entries into the final third at this tournament have come down either flank. Goals from open-play crosses are up and up by a large percentage from four years ago. With teams choosing to brace and bolster their middle, take-ons are down a third since Russia too, opponents instead opting to build up and attack from out wide. There is only one way to beat them, as they say, and it is around the back here in Qatar.