If Owen Coyle ends up being Bolton's biggest January capture, then it will still have been an excellent transfer window for Bolton.

If Bolton stay up, he'll probably cost Phil Gartside close to the £3million that was reported when the saga began, but I'm sure that by the end of the season that will seem like a bargain.

All you had to do was hear how Coyle's arrival has energised the Reebok. It feels like it has been a long time since people have been genuinely excited about a Bolton home game.

The Reebok's atmosphere became a lazy excuse for Megson's apologists. The truth was that the fans were responding to Megson's own body language on the touchline and his soul-crushing tactics. Megson's infamous Klasnic substitution against Hull was only the most visible of two years of questionable decisions.

While there was still a fair amount of direct football against Arsenal, there were more than enough fresh ideas in the performance to indicate that Coyle is already implementing changes. Fabrice Muamba showed more purpose and direction in sixty minutes than he had demonstrated over the last two years at Bolton and Lee Chung-Yong looks more and more comfortable every week.

Here is the crux of the matter as far as Gary Megson is concerned: It doesn't matter that Megson kept Bolton the Premier League - Bolton have some pretty good players but the team wasn't playing well.

Jussi Jaaskelainen, Gary Cahill, Kevin Davies and Matty Taylor have all signed contract extension recently, but while the team wasn't playing well the club wasn't getting value for money from it's well-compensated veterans. And that's without even discussing Johan Elmander.

In fact, if Matty Taylor had looked a bit more sober in front of goal, Coyle might have brought some instant returns for Bolton. Whatever Bolton end up paying Burnley for Coyle's services, the glimmer of hope that Bolton might turn Arsenal over is priceless. I've missed it.