Arsène Wenger has said that he will not tolerate a repeat of the past two seasons, when Arsenal’s challenge for the title faded long before Christmas.

Some believe that Arsenal have fallen farther behind the top teams in the transfer market this summer, while they have also lost Thierry Henry and Fredrik Ljungberg, two of their most experienced players.

“It is only acceptable that we fight for the championship and to do well in the Champions League,” Wenger said. “By the beginning of November last season, when we were 16 points off the leader, that wasn’t acceptable for us. We should be fighting in March. We showed in spells, and in the Carling Cup, what we could do. We knew we were facing major competition in England with clubs who invest a lot of money. We went a different way [by buying young players] and need to be patient. But, while we have a young team, we have experience. We must show the quality.”

Wenger denies making promises to Ljungberg that the club would sign top players. The Sweden midfield player claimed that his dissatisfaction with the arrivals since he signed a new contract two years ago led him to move to West Ham United this week. “He was a great fighter and did extremely well for us,” Wenger said. “The club did very well for Freddie. But football is a team sport. I didn’t make any promises. The company works well when everybody does what he’s responsible for. The player is responsible for his performance in the team, not the policy of the club. We can replace these players [Henry and Ljungberg] and the spirit of the team can compensate.”

Arsenal will try to secure a work permit for Eduardo Da Silva on appeal on Thursday. The first application was turned down by the Home Office because the forward, who was signed for £8 million from Dynamo Zagreb this summer, had not played frequently enough for his adopted Croatia.