Now Arsene Wenger feels he's on the money at Arsenal

ARSENE WENGER has already spent £62million this summer, promised there are more players to come and that this is the year when Arsenal can finally slug it out with their wealthier rivals for the title.

Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, summer transfers arsenal GETTY

Wenger has promised that there are more signings to come

Arsenal have done their transfer business early, bringing in Alexis Sanchez, goalkeeper David Ospina and full-backs Mathieu Debuchy and Calum Chambers.

And in Sanchez, Wenger believes they now have a player with the pace and variation to really hurt opponents.

Wenger was in bullish mood ahead of this weekend’s Emirates Cup where Arsenal face Benfica today and Monaco tomorrow.

Their rivals have spent heavily this summer, too, but Liverpool have sold star striker Luis Suarez to finance their spree, while Chelsea have brought in £78m from the sale of David Luiz and Romelu Lukaku.

Arsenal have lost Bacary Sagna on a free to Manchester City, but the £62m outlay is their biggest in any transfer window and with more to come. The handcuffs have been sprung.

“The balance of power in the Premier League is a bit more even than it was five or six years ago,” said Wenger.

“That’s because of Financial Fair Play, added to us having more financial power than five years ago, that gives us a better chance.

“At that time I was sitting here and thinking ‘which player will go next?’

Wenger comments on recent transfer news [AMBIENT]

The balance of power in the Premier League is a bit more even than it was five or six years ago

Arsene Wenger

“I took it on my shoulders. It was exciting, to manage to keep the club at the top level with less resources. Did we do well or not? The only thing I can say is that we were consistent at the level. But we lacked the quality to really win it.”

Wenger is correct that Financial Fair Play will benefit Arsenal as it protects the clubs that have been able to build up their wealth by years of participation in the Champions League and the cash that generates.

But it acts as a closed shop for the others, with Sugar Daddies no longer permitted and that dangle of instant Champions League football for players who have a great season elsewhere.

Southampton have been given a brutal lesson in the new economics, with their stars departing.

Wenger has lost big players to rivals in the past and sympathises, while at the same time returning again to Southampton to take Chambers following the moves of Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

“It’s a vicious circle,” he said. “Once you get great players in, everybody wants to stay. But it goes the other way as well.

Arsenal summer transfers more to come says WengerGETTY

Alexis Sanchez sets a hot pace for Kieran Gibbs in training

“You see the case at Southampton. Would Morgan Schneiderlin want to go if everybody had stayed?”

Sanchez, 25, trained with the rest of the squad for the first time yesterday after missing the pre-season training camp in Austria this week to sort out a visa.

Wenger says he will play him this weekend, and has also promised to use Costa Rica striker Joel Campbell.

Wenger says Arsenal fans can expect great things from Sanchez, who like Neymar, was under the shadow of Lionel Messi at Barcelona.

“He’s a good finisher, who made a great impression in Italy,” said Wenger.

“He was outstanding there and then at Barcelona it was a bit more difficult.

“But it’s like you could see with Neymar at Barcelona, because there you have Messi. You see Neymar with Brazil and Neymar with Barcelona and it’s not the same.

“I like the fact Sanchez can play left, right, up front and that’s why I went for him.

“I took him because he has the qualities of Walcott, he goes behind the defenders off the ball.

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“And with the quality of his runs he can be very important for us. I love pace and when we lost Walcott we suffered a little bit on that front.”

Wenger has admitted that he expects club captain Thomas Vermaelen to leave this summer and is scouring the South American market for a replacement.

“We follow closely what’s going on in South American because I believe in some positions they are today stronger than European clubs. Especially up front and central defence.”

And Wenger gave his strongest hint yet, that if Arsenal had not won the FA Cup last season and finished in the top four that he may not have signed his new contract, which will keep him at the Emirates until 2017.

“I wanted to think I had done well for the club. The fact I wanted to go somewhere else, never.

“I always wanted to stay. But to feel that I had done a good job and of course the fact that we could not win was going on in my mind.”

If you had not won anything? “I don’t want to answer that question.”

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