Thierry: We won't give up

Thierry Henry admitted today that Arsenal cannot compete with Chelsea's spending power but refused to concede the Premiership following their 1-1 draw with Manchester City last night.

After Chelsea's 2-0 win against Middlesbrough, Jose Mourinho's expensively assembled squad are now seven points clear at the top of the table.

But the French striker said: "It is a big gap but we won't give up. We don't have the wallet of Chelsea, so you do just what you can do. Chelsea have players like Geremi in the stand - he was not even on the bench. But we are going to try to catch them.

"We cannot match Chelsea's spending power but we can match their spirit."

Henry was backed up by team-mate Freddie Ljungberg ,who rescued Arsenal last night with a 71st-minute equaliser. The Swede believes Chelsea's recent good fortune with refereeing decisions might run out by the end of the season.

He said: "It is seven points between us but we have been in this situation before. Manchester United caught us a couple of seasons ago. For us it is just important to think about our results and hopefully we can close in and win it.

"I still believe Chelsea will drop points. They have played good and I have great respect for them but sometimes they had luck on their side. Then they come away with three points. Maybe at the end of the season they won't have that and they will

drop some points. They will have a blip the same as we had. We don't have as big a squad as Chelsea. Everybody knows they have two first-team squads. But we have a great team spirit and we have great young kids.