Arsene Wenger insists his Arsenal squad is strong enough to
cope with the demands of the forthcoming campaign, despite
conceding he is still in the market for new
signings.
While plenty of column inches were filled with the departure of
Thierry Henry, heading in the opposite direction, into Emirates
Stadium, big name arrivals have been sparse.
Eduardo Da Silva has been brought in to help fill the void left by
Henry's switch to Barcelona but there has been major doubts cast
over whether the club's creative epicentre has been adequately
replaced.
Wenger, though, is not of a similar mindset as he believes the
likes of Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner, on his return from a
successful loan spell at Birmingham, deserve to be given a chance
in the first team.
"We have bought Eduardo (Da Silva), and we have Bendtner and
Walcott to take over from these players," said Wenger.
"You can not say Walcott is a potential world-class player and
then, when we have to play him, ask why we do not sign another
world-class player.
"You can not have it both ways."
While Wenger is confident that his side possess enough firepower to
trouble the Premier League's finest, he is willing to admit that
defensively there needs to be some fine tuning.
A familiar Achilles heel of conceding goals in the air flared up
again on Sunday against Internazionale and Wenger acknowledges it
is an aspect of their game that his team need to work on.
"In the air, we have to be more efficient," he added.
"We have to work on that because in England that is an important
way to stop goals.
"(Philippe) Senderos played very well on Saturday and he is very
good in the air. We still have [Johan] Djourou, who is injured at
the moment, so I do not want to buy a centre-back."