On the Premiership: It has taken a long time but, finally, football is beginning to fall in love with Bolton Wanderers.

A thumping victory over Arsenal on Saturday propelled Sam Allardyce's side back into the Premiership's top six, a perfect end to a week which also yielded qualification for the League Cup quarter-finals. In nine days, they should pocket a place in the Uefa Cup knockout stage. As Allardyce has pointed out, Wanderers have never had it so good.

It is desperately difficult for Bolton to earn plaudits that are not delivered through gritted teeth. Ever since they won promotion to the top flight in 2001, their methods have been sniped at, their squad dismissed as over-the-hill mercenaries, their manager as a grumble-merchant.

Now, those graceless attitudes are beginning to soften. In a league which has long succumbed to stifling predictability, Allardyce's side are one of the few still capable of regularly bloodying the noses of the great and good. They have a particular affinity for ruffling Arsenal's exquisitely-preened feathers: the Londoners have enjoyed just one victory over Bolton in their last six meetings, and they are beginning to view trips to the Reebok Stadium in the same way most people treat visits to the dentist.

One of the reasons Arsène Wenger's team become so flustered whenever they meet Bolton is precisely because of that style which receives such widespread condemnation. The charge levelled at Wanderers is that they are little more than cloggers - muscle-bound bully-boys who kick, hack and thwack their way to victory. They are the Barbarian hordes laying waste to the Premiership's most sophisticated civilisations.

The truth, of course, is very different. Yes, Bolton are physical. They play at a high tempo and never shirk the muckier aspects of the game, as Arsenal found to their cost. Teams visiting the Reebok should expect an early barrage of crosses to be launched into their area and set-pieces, especially long throws, are key weapons in Bolton's potent armoury.

Wenger muttered darkly about "long balls" in the wake of his team's worst defeat of the season, and finished his post-match press conference with the grudging admission that "Bolton did what they did very well" - the sort of praise that has the bitter after-taste of criticism.

But in the Premiership it is not possible to rely on brawn alone, and Bolton would not have enjoyed such sweeping recent success if they did not blend their physical power with poise. Their central midfielders Abdoulaye Faye and Stelios Giannakopoulos are prime examples.

Allardyce has glowingly referred to the former as "Vieira number two", an assessment which would have cast Wenger into even deeper gloom, while Stelios has been one of the revelations of the last two seasons. He was a joy to watch against Arsenal, the cleverness of his play matched only by its purpose. His cross which allowed Faye to head in Bolton's opener was sublime, and it was he who made the game safe with a clinical finish moments later.

The fact that Stelios and Faye have fused at the heart of Bolton's team is testament to their own qualities, but it is also a tribute to the brilliance of their manager. Many coaches have attempted to turn their clubs into mini Leagues of Nations but few have pulled it off as spectacularly as Allardyce. There were nine different nationalities in Allardyce's starting 11 on Saturday - two Senegalese, two English, a Finn, an Irishman, a Greek, an Israeli, a Jamaican, a Welshman and a Frenchman - and yet Bolton played in perfect synthesis.

Allardyce has succeeded not simply in identifying technically gifted players, which is perhaps his easiest task when he scours the world for new talent, but men who will accept his managerial ethos and adapt to his squad's dynamic. It has been a triumph of gigantic proportions.

Potentially troublesome influences such as El Hadji Diouf and Ivan Campo have been accommodated and, to varying degrees, reformed, while a succession of ailing careers have been re-energised.

When Gary Speed joined Bolton from Newcastle in July 2004, it was widely assumed the midfielder was simply angling for one last pay-day. On Saturday, Speed made his 50th Premiership appearance for Bolton and, despite being 36, he shows no sign of slowing down.

The only question mark hanging over Bolton concerns how they will cope if, and when, Allardyce decides it is time for a new challenge. With Graeme Souness growing more fidgety by the week, Wanderers may have to ready themselves for a scrap over their talismanic manager.

But Allardyce should think twice before he is tempted by the bright lights of Newcastle. At the Reebok, he has a supportive chairman, a team whose commitment is unwavering and job security, none of which are guaranteed at St James's Park.

He should stay put and ensure that his Bolton fairy-tale has the happy ending it deserves.