On The Premiership: Arsène Wenger apparently has little time for medals and even less for memories. "Maybe when I am old and not working I will look back," he admitted recently. "But not now. I have too much to do."

The Frenchman may be the ultimate football obsessive, but even he must have allowed himself a few stolen moments last weekend to reflect on 10 momentous years at Arsenal. Saturday's victory at poor, tumbling Charlton was, in its own way, a fitting tribute but relative to his other deeds, it does not even merit a footnote. There are a stack of more gilded, glittering achievements to choose from.

Wenger is much more than simply a successful football manager. He has revolutionised the way clubs prepare for battle, analysing everything from dietary requirements to methods of rest and rehabilitation, and has shrugged off the top flight's financial imbalances to produce some of the most rhapsodic football ever seen in England.

Yet perhaps Wenger's greatest achievement in the media-savvy world of the Premiership, is to remain a largely mysterious figure. In comparison, his rivals are open books.

Alex Ferguson has been around too long and has revealed too much to be an enigma: a behind-the-scenes documentary at Manchester United even gave us a glimpse of the legendary hairdryer treatment.

Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, is forever peppering his Chelsea press conferences with references to a life beyond the dug-out: we know, for instance, that he has only ever set foot inside an English pub once, to buy cigarettes for his wife.

Wenger is unknown and, to an extent, unknowable. Unlike Ferguson, he has deliberately eschewed building close relationships with individual journalists although, in contrast to the Scot, he is never less than courteous in his media briefings. And unlike Mourinho, he appears utterly uninterested in the potentially lucrative commercial opportunities that go hand-in-hand with his achievements. No James Bond-inspired mobile phone commercials for him.

Then again, "The Professor" - as he was christened by Ferguson - is hardly an advertising man's dream. Mourinho may smoulder with Latin sensuality but Wenger's face boasts the sort of lines you could fly down on a hang-glider. He has also never quite perfected the awkward art of goal celebrations, his reactions still characterised by the sort of geeky arm-waving that gets kids beaten up at school.

It is unlikely Wenger cares. There are obvious reasons for him to want to keep a low public profile, not least because it forces the media to train their sights on his on-field achievements.

And there are plenty of those. It is worth remembering that when Wenger arrived in 1996, Arsenal was a fragile, fading institution.

The dark cloud of financial impropriety created by George Graham's bung-taking had not entirely dispersed while Bruce Rioch's imposition of a stale, stultifying brand of football had drained the adrenaline of supporters.

"Boring, boring Arsenal" was not always sung by Gooners with such lusty irony.

The new arrival took 18 months to make his mark, notching Arsenal's first double in over 25 years at the end of his first full season in charge, but Wenger's monumental achievement was not reversing the club's playing fortunes so much as completely reinventing its image.

For most of the decade which preceded Wenger's arrival, Arsenal were infamous for being dull, defensive-minded long-ball merchants. Titles were won, sometimes dramatically, but any plaudits were delivered through gritted teeth.

The north Londoners were admired but not loved: Chelsea without the money.

Wenger changed all that. Dennis Bergkamp was let off his creative leash, Marc Overmars and Emmanuel Petit offered punch and panache and the unproven young tyro Nicolas Anelka was the spearhead of the first of three great Arsenal teams plucked out of the air by their French conjurer.

Since then, sparked by the effervescent Thierry Henry, Arsenal have emerged as one of the modern era's dominant sides, playing the sort of exhilarating football which has melted the hearts of even the iciest sceptics.

The unbeaten season of 2002-03 was Wenger's highlight but it is a mark of his influence that every fan has their own favourite Arsenal moment.

"Arsene's arrival changed the way we were viewed by the public," said Henry.

"When I walk in the street in London, people stop me and tell me that they are not Arsenal fans but they like to see us play. That's reassuring."

Reassuring and affirming, perhaps. Wenger might not boast the silverware of his great rivals but, like all great artists, he has taken a vision and transformed it into an object of undeniable aesthetic splendour. It is his achievement, his legacy and football is grateful to him.