The Gunners have seen both their Barclays Premier League title challenge and Champions League hopes fade away over the past two months.

One of the factors in their failure to last the course was the loss of key personnel to injury at just the wrong time with not enough quality cover in reserve - striker Eduardo broke his leg at Birmingham when both Robin van Persie and Tomas Rosicky were also sidelined, then defender Bacary Sagna was ruled out for the remainder of the season.

Wenger, though, has complete faith in his current young squad, most of whom were picked up for relatively cheap transfer fees and subsequently developed from within.

However, the biggest challenge for the Arsenal manager is now likely to be keeping his players together.

The future of midfielder Mathieu Flamini - a free agent in the summer - has yet to be resolved, while Alexander Hleb has been linked with a big-money move to Inter Milan and rumours surrounding a switch back to Spain for star man Cesc Fabregas are never far away.

Yet Wenger insists Arsenal - saddled with a £300million long-term mortgage debt following the move to 60,000-seater Emirates Stadium - will remain faithful to their policy of not breaking the bank and risking everything by spending more than they can afford.

"We have £360million debt and we have to respect the wages structure or we will go bust, it is as simple as that," Wenger said.

"It is not that you cannot respect the wages structure, we cannot afford not to do it.

"We want to respect what is planned. The numbers are the numbers.

"I feel always when we make a decision in the club the same decision is valid in 10 years.

"That means in 10 years it still should work, that the club works with its income and not with somebody who comes in by parachute into your court, and brings you a huge amount of money.

"For me that's not workable and not morally right. Every company should work with its natural resources - because if this guy dies what do you do? You still have to pay the players.

"I just feel we are not Chelsea, first of all. We have no [Roman] Abramovich.

"When we have paid our debt back we work with higher resources. At the moment we work with what we have."

Wenger, meanwhile, expects a decision on Flamini's future one way or another by the end of the Bank Holiday weekend.

The 24-year-old French midfielder, who is set to return to the squad for Sunday's game against Everton following an ankle injury, is understood to have been offered a new long-term deal worth an estimated £55,000-a-week.

"It will be sorted out over the weekend. Will he stay or not? That is down to him," Wenger said.

"You know he is free to make a decision and then you have to accept the market. You listen to everybody in Europe, take some time and that's why the situation has lasted a little bit.

"Ideally I want him to stay, but he's free. You can decide to sign where you want.

"That means if you get two million here, four somewhere else, you can go to the one who gives you four, or you can as well stay to the one who gives you two.

"Everybody has his own rules on that - and we are not naive enough to feel that it is not linked with money, because he says he wants to stay, and if he goes somewhere else that means he's linked with what?"

Wenger believes but for some more composure and a slice of good fortune, his side could be leading the charge for the title, rather than praying for a miracle over results elsewhere in the final two games.

"I personally believe we were the best team in the league and we have some weaknesses," Wenger added.

"We paid for that, we had as well some bad luck, but we lost only three games and it has been very close.

"It is a very tight championship, with one or two decision from the referee as to whether we lost or won."