Wenger: This is not crisis time

Wenger has admitted since that he should have made use of the January transfer window but his vocabulary does not include the word panic and he has always maintained that the winter market is for panic buyers.

However, the freakish list of injuries - nine of the first-team squad were out at one time - should have prompted a rethink. He ran out of bodies after Gilberto Silva was ruled out until this month with a back problem while his compatriot Edu broke a toe in early November. The funds were there but he opted not to use them.

A clean bill of health should give Arsenal adequate cover everywhere but at one stage the treatment room looked like an A and E department on a Saturday night.

"I have never known a situation like it in my time here," said Wenger, but he has always maintained that the season is anything but a crisis.

"Just not true. Just look at the points we have and the position we are in," he said. "In any other season we would be in contention for the title. Considering the problems we have had, it is a great achievement to be where we are.

"Europe? It is now a real cup competition. No, it is not sour grapes when I look at the semi-finalists but one of them is PSV, a team we beat once and drew away with nine men. It would be better to have a second league stage. It makes for better television drama to have the sudden-death format but it also makes it a cup - and anything can happen."

Arsenal are playing well of late with six wins and a draw from the last seven matches. Some of the verve which surrounded their breathtaking brand of football last season and in the first two and a half months of this one is beginning to return.

But Wenger knows he must address a number of serious issues if Arsenal are to stand a chance of challenging Chelsea next season.

He clearly has the stomach for it. Wenger has shown this season, on more than one occasion, a steely streak that belies his benign image. One or two may have thought they were in the comfort zone with their place assured.

Jens Lehmann was the first to find out that no such luxury exists. He was left out for 11 first-team matches until the unpredictable Manuel Almunia eventually made one spectacular error too many and the German was restored. The talk now is that Arsenal are scouting for Lehmann's successor. Easier said than done.

"What we have to find is a goalkeeper who can handle the pressure of English football - more crosses, more physical challenges with no free-kick," said a Highbury scouting source. "They are not easy to find." Lehmann has redeemed himself of late and it would not be the greatest surprise if he was first choice at the start of next season.

Wenger is convinced that Jose Reyes will be an asset to Arsenal after a difficult first full season. "It is always hard for a young player to adapt," he said. Reyes was the victim of a hoax call from a radio station, has been probably the most misquoted player in Europe when it comes to discussing his future and his frequent absences from dining with the squad at the training centre has earned him the nickname "vertigo" because of his reluctance to climb the stairs to the eating area.

He says he wants to stay. But if Real Madrid or Barcelona come in, that resolve will be tested.

Michael Owen and Shaun Wright-Phillips, and perhaps Stewart Downing from Middlesbrough, are transfer targets. But whether Wenger has the transfer kitty he needs to solve the problems is a debate among supporters.

The club have said all along that the new £350million stadium at Ashburton Grove will not affect his budget and chairman Peter Hill-Wood has told Standard Sport that funds are there.

The feeling at the moment is that Arsenal's summer will not be time for a huge clearout. Wenger has rebuilding to do but the prospect of a root-andbranch upheaval is looking slim.

Previous years have been disrupted by the on-off saga involving Patrick Vieira's move to Real Madrid. But Vieira has already said: "It will be a quiet time for me this year."

But instead there could be more fun and games concerning Ashley Cole. And yet, despite the scandal over the Chelsea tapping-up controversy, Cole looks certain to sign a new contract and eventually fulfil the role for which he has been earmarked by Wenger - that of Arsenal captain.