Wenger confident Arsenal can compete with Manchester United

Arsene Wenger is adamant Arsenal can compete with Manchester United regardless of the Old Trafford side’s considerable resources.

United spent big to bring in Paul Pogba, Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic ahead of the 2016-17 campaign, whereas Arsenal have made just one high-profile addition in Granit Xhaka.

Nevertheless, Wenger has little doubt Arsenal have what it takes to cause Jose Mourinho’s men problems on the pitch.

“Manchester United are the richest club in the world together with Real Madrid and not many teams can compete with them financially,” Wenger said at a news conference.

“But money does not always the make difference. We can compete on the pitch. Football is not a financial competition, although it’s becoming like that more and more. But the table does not always reflect financial power. We saw that with Leicester last year.

“But on the long term the money can make a difference. We just try to compete on our level with the assets we have. We think we can compete with United. In the end, the quality on the pitch will be the most important thing.

“We did not compete with United for any specific player on the transfer market.

“We finished second in the table last term and want to do one better this season. That’s what we want to focus on.”

Arsenal start their Premier League campaign at home to Liverpool on Sunday.