Arsene Wenger's spectacles misted with emotion as the Arsenal manager led the applause for the club's goal-record breaker. Wenger had just witnessed treble confirmation that goals - freakish or perfectly crafted - can change everything. They have certainly changed Ian Wright's life.

In the autumn of his footballing career, Wright seems at his most vibrant. Age and disciplinary excess - another visit to the FA dock is pending - cannot wither him. Natural fitness and robustness of spirit - quite apart from the goal gift - made him the hattrick hero of this hour and, indelibly, Arsenal's marksman of all time.

Wright will be 34 in November and to be still performing as he did against Bolton by the millennium may be a marker too far even for the man who enthusiastically trotted out new targets and old tributes after breaking Cliff Bastin's 51-year-old Arsenal record. But amid all this could be detected a growing maturity as a footballer that may well prolong his truly extraordinary service.

Wright has never won a championship or a European medal, both attainable targets. "I'm looking to move on, I want us to win something - all these goals mean nothing without that."

The striker has a better chance of fulfilling those ambitions, he acknowledged, if he subordinated himself to the side. "I'm trying more for the team. You can't be sloppy, you have to keep hold of the ball. There's an area for tricks. You have to be a link."

Sweet music to Wenger, who had just ventured that his - and Glenn Hoddle's - influence had made Wright "more of a team player than a year ago". Arsenal's manager will have been amused, too, to hear of Wright's intended gift to the Greeks of PAOK Salonika. "I hope we'll do a typical Arsenal job, bore them to death and score a goal."

Given Dennis Bergkamp's absence tomorrow - he is scared of flying - the odds will shorten even further on Wright, having overcome brief striker's block, chipping in with that goal and adding to his tally of 180. But how much longer can this goal stream flow? "Nobody knows," replied Wenger before hazarding a guess. "Today, you could say two years maybe."

Maybe not. Wenger must shuffle an ageing Arsenal pack. Knowing when to twist or stick with Wright, the manager conceded, will need a gambler's steely nerve and judgment.

"It's the most difficult part of the job," he said, adding that he had learned from his French experience. "In the past, I've stuck too much with players. You have to anticipate. When you are in a big club, you cannot take the risk of one, two or three players taking you down a level."

Wright and Arsenal's other thirtysomethings know the score. "The older players cannot think three or four years ahead. I've told them that. They have to think year by year."

When would he know it is time to part with Wright? "It will be dreadful for him to lose a yard now. He is still very sharp over the first five or 10 yards."

Wright, he added, was "instinctive, explosive and yet calm in front of goal". One attribute still puzzles the manager, especially as Wright, at 22, was a latecomer to the professional game. "He is fantastic for the timing of his movement. It is so intelligent when he has not got the ball. Where did he learn that?"

Bolton were the latest victims of the knack. Wright was on hand to tap in his second and the recordbreaker - 179 - in the 25th minute, a goal so simple that "I was actually happy before I put the ball in." His two others were examples of superb placement, shots squeezed inside the far post. It was Bolton's bad luck to meet Wright in the mood and also to suffer a deflection that directed Ray Parlour's shot home.

Colin Todd has a striker with the best yet to come. The touch and persistence of Nathan Blake, enjoying little support, always troubled Arsenal's defence. The 25-year-old Welshman deserved a goal, but had to settle for the thoughtful cross which brought Alan Thompson's headed opener.

Guardian Service

Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Vieira, Bould, Petit, Parlour (Platt 77), Wright (Anelka 82), Grimandi, Bergkamp, Overmars (Boa Morte 77). Subs Not Used: Manninger, Marshall. Booked: Vieira. Goals: Parlour 44, Wright 20, 25, 81.

Bolton: Branagan, Frandsen, Taggart, Pollock, Sellars, Blake, Thompson, Bergsson, Beardsley (Gunnlaugsson 66), Phillips, McAnespie (Todd 47). Subs Not Used: Johansen, Ward, Taylor. Booked: Taggart. Goals: Thompson 13.

Referee: N Barry (Scunthorpe).