Wenger aiming high

Arsene Wenger insists Arsenal have what it takes to finish top of the table once more despite failing to compete last season.

An inconsistent opening to the last campaign - with five defeats from 14 matches - saw the Gunners playing catch up on their title rivals before eventually finding form which secured a fourth-place finish. Just being also-rans, however, is not good enough for Wenger, whose last trophy was the 2005 FA Cup.

"The ambition is to finish as high as possible. What is as high as possible is to finish first, it is as simple as that," declared the Arsenal manager.

"The competition is of a high level and many aspire to that, so let's continue to play the game the way we want to play it and I believe we can show that we have made big steps forward."

Despite the sale of Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor and defender Kolo Toure to Manchester City, Wenger maintains his squad is stronger than this time last year.

So far, Belgian centre-half Thomas Vermaelen is the only new face, although the return to full fitness of Croatia marksman Eduardo leaves Wenger feeling there is plenty of strength in attack.

"We are young and have developed. Why should we not be better in August than we were in March?" said Wenger.

"We lost two great players. However, we have bought Vermaelen to replace Kolo and we have Eduardo back, who for me is a great player.

"We have players who develop very well and are young, like [Carlos] Vela, [Nicklas] Bendtner, Walcott, who are all strikers, so I do not feel we are short in these positions."