Wenger believes Arsenal have solved defensive woes

Arsene Wenger believes he has solved Arsenal’s soft defensive core and that the Gunners can win the Premier League title playing free-flowing football.

Wenger has Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Calum Chambers and Gabriel as central defensive options and he is not in the market for another defender.

“Four is enough,” Wenger said. “(Mathieu) Debuchy can play there, (Nacho) Monreal can play there, so you can say we are not out to buy a central defender. And Gabriel will be a great central defender, believe me.”

Arsenal have won nine of their games in an unbeaten 10-match run ahead of tonight’s clash with Swansea.

The exception was a goalless draw with champions Chelsea, whose approach became more pragmatic as they neared the title.

Wenger insists Arsenal’s attractive style can deliver a first title since 2003/04, but knows his side must show more steel and win when not at their best.

“We can win (the title), of course we can win,” Wenger added.

“We have done it before. Manchester United have done it. Plenty of teams have done it. It is how well you play, the kind of game you play. For example, you don’t question Barcelona about the way they play football.

“But if they start to lose games, you will question ‘Are they not too naive?’. But when they win, you don’t question it. You cannot play 38 games in the same convincing style. You need to have a balance in your team so that if you are not at a level of fluency, you can still win the game.

“Then most of the time it is the individual talent of the players. You have to accept that at some level — unfortunately — the game becomes an individual sport.”

For his part, Swansea boss Garry Monk believes tonight’s opponents could have run Chelsea closer for the title: “They’re finishing the season strong and have done since the turn of the year. I expect they’ll be a little bit disappointed they didn’t start the season the way they’re finishing it. Maybe they could have been a little bit closer to Chelsea. But they’ve had a fantastic season. There’s a talented squad there with real depth as well, especially the attacking options they have.

“They seem young enough and good enough players to make that next step and looking from the outside they seem a squad who could develop into title contenders.”