I first became aware of this when one of his players, Van Persie, wanted to visit the Serbian doctor Marijana Kovacevic whose treatment involves rubbing placenta into the wounded area. The efficacy of this treatment is unproven and is without doubt firmly in the ‘alternative medicine’ realm. Despite being sceptical of alternative medicine Arsene Wegner indicated his knowledge of the placebo effect and its possible positive influence on his player’s psychological well being during his recovery while shrewdly failing to endorse the treatment itself;

“I asked my medical people if there was any danger to the treatment and, when they said there wasn’t, I was happy to let him go,” said Wenger. “Van Persie wanted to go. It’s sometimes psychological as well, for the players to feel that they can be helped. It can be a problem of confidence. But since I’ve been in sport a muscle problem takes 21 days [to heal], a damaged ligament is four weeks, and I’ve never seen it any shorter. You can only play with injections and there’s always a recurrence of the muscle injury.”

Since then I have been paying more attention to Wenger’s comments and he has not disappointed. During the Liverpool game at the weekend Wegner made a particularly impassioned team talk at half time when Arsenal were trailing 1 – 0, they subsequently went on to score two goals and win the game. The media and his players have credited this team talk with the victory but Wenger is all to aware of the post hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy and was keen to play down the significance of his emotional outburst;

“Maybe if I had not said a word we would have won the game as well,” he said. “Sometimes the emotional side overtakes the rational but you cannot live only with the emotional. You have to be rational most of the time.”

The second half of that statement wouldn’t be amiss as Jay Novella’s quote of the week on The Skeptics Guide to the Universe.

So what is the point of all this you rightly ask. I think it is important to take note of scepticism where you least expect it. Football attracts a massive audience and Wenger’s comments will have been read by millions of football fans around the world. He might not even realise it but he is bringing a sceptical view point to people that might not have been exposed to it before in the world of sport that is rife with superstition for this Arsene Wenger is worth praising.