Arsène Wenger has revealed that he believes that Arsenal will challenge for the Premier League title if he is able to bring in two or three more players before the close of the transfer window on Wednesday evening. As things stand the squad is threadbare, with significant injuries and suspensions adding to the setback of losing Cesc Fabregas, Gaël Clichy and now Samir Nasri. We face Manchester United on Sunday afternoon, with the likely outcome bring that we will have taken only 1 point from our opening three Premier League matches. I realise that I am being slightly pessimistic, but does anybody really believe that we are going to beat United?… I hope I will be proved wrong.

Wenger has already suggested that he is in the market for another striker (as it looks increasingly likely that Nicklas Bendtner will finally leave), and yesterday Bolton manager Owen Coyle confirmed that we have made a (rather low) bid for Gary Cahill.

Speaking Arsenal.com Wenger confirmed that he will continue to do his utmost to ensure that the players we need are be brought in over the next few days.

“It is important [to strengthen Arsenal's squad] because we will lose players in January with players going to the African Nations Cup,”

“We lose Gervinho and Chamakh together so, first of all, it is important to strengthen up front. It is important that we find one midfielder and one defender as well. So we are still short of three bodies.

“I am anxious because I want to do it [bring in new players] and I try everything to do it.

“[However] We are dependent on the desire of the people who have the players to sell the players.

“I will try to strengthen the squad in depth because at the moment we are a bit short number-wise, but if we get two or three players in we have the quality to challenge.

“I am confident as well because we have some good young players who can make a big step very quickly.”

One thing I had forgotten, but that must definitely not be overlooked, is the importance of the players who will be missing during the African Cup of Nations. Not only will we be without Gervinho (and Maroune Chamakh who, lets face it, we can live without…), but also Alex Song. Hopefully we will have a strong enough squad to cope during the few weeks that they are unavailable.

I really hope that Wenger makes good on his plans to sign new players. We need a new striker because in my opinion Chamakh (despite starting his Arsenal career well) is a waste of space, and we are pretty sure that Bendtner is leaving. A new central-midfielder is a must now that Nasri and Fabregas have gone, and a the fact that we need a new centre-back is obvious.

5 days and counting; anything could happen.

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