London, Aug 13: Seldom have Arsenal and Arsene Wenger entered a season looking so frail both mentally and on the personnel front and should they land the title this term it will surely rank as the intelligent Frenchman's greatest achievement.
Hamstrung by the club's ambitious plans to build a new stadium whose costs have spiralled out of control, he has been restricted to just buying Jens Lehmann as a replacement for David Seaman - and the German was far from being the first choice.
"With less money available it is a big challenge for me, and I would say the players as well," he admitted to the Sunday Times.
Wenger has not been able to fill the alarming gaps in defence where the partnership of Sol Campbell and the Ivory Coast's Kolo Toure failed to convince during the Community Shield with Manchester United last Sunday.
With veteran Martin Keown effectively the only cover after the release of Oleg Luzhny, who ironically gave his finest performance in what turned out to be his final appearance for the gunners in the FA Cup final victory over Southampton, that will cause a major headache for Wenger.



However, Wenger has received a welcome boost head of the new season with Thierry Henry, inspirational captain Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires, who are instrumental to any hopes of trophy success, pledging themselves to the club for the long term leaving only striker Sylvain Wiltord holding out over a new contract.


Bureau Report