Arsene Wenger should have no difficulty keeping his mind off Alex Ferguson when there is so much else to fill his thoughts. The Arsenal manager has been busy with negotiations to keep significant players at Highbury. Sol Campbell and Lauren have now re-signed and new deals have been given to the youngsters Justin Hoyte and Johan Djourou.

It has been an exacting season for Wenger as he strives to ensure that Arsenal hold their own with Ferguson's Manchester United and somehow pursue the serene and dominant Chelsea. He has at least removed some uncertainty by reaching agreement with key figures. Wenger said that the contracts are all "for a minimum of two years".

The option clause agreed with 30-year-old Campbell was particularly important. He was believed to be willing to take a wage cut in return for an extended commitment from the club. The defender is assured of two more seasons and, with an extension thought to be triggered by his number of appearances, may still be with Arsenal in 2008.

"We are a young side now so he is nearly the oldest player," said Wenger. "When he is committed, you can go to war with a guy like Sol. He gives you everything."

Not so long ago, the announcement of a renewed commitment from Campbell would have been taken as proof that Arsenal's control of the English scene was becoming entrenched, but Chelsea have overturned all expectations. Despite all the effort put into persuading Campbell and to a lesser extent Lauren, it is no longer enough merely to hold their squad together.

Arsenal must step up their standards. They will do so while seeking a successor to Edu. Wenger has all but given up hope of keeping the Brazilian midfielder, whose contract expires in the summer.

"My belief is more that he will go to a different club," said the manager. "If I had to, I would bet on it being Valencia."

He is determined that any departure should take place while the January transfer window is open, since he recoils from having a senior player who hangs around the squad while no longer being committed to it.

Though he has not made any formal approach, the Arsenal manager evidently knows whom he wants in Edu's place and he appears confident of finding a seasoned midfielder at a reasonable price.

Wenger has already had to delve more deeply into his squad than he could have expected. He reels off the stats about Gilberto Silva and Edu, who have respectively begun only six and three Premiership matches this season. The Arsenal manager, if asked, could surely detail the substantial absences of men such as Campbell and Patrick Vieira as well.

He had never envisaged the enforced promotion of Mathieu Flamini (20), and Cesc Fabregas (17), which has even seen the manager forced to field them in tandem.

"I feel when you see the players in training that the quality is there," said Wenger, "but they are young. It's a fight against time. To get the quality turned into points is a little more difficult at the moment."

He may have been telling the stark truth when he implied that any wrangle with Ferguson had been, at most, a secondary consideration. "I had a difficult week because we lost a game, but that's the only reason," he insisted in the wake of the defeat at Bolton.

There was, however, a hint that some courtesies will be observed when Manchester United come to Highbury for a Premiership fixture on February 1st.

Wenger noted that he had shaken hands with Ferguson at the English League Cup quarter-final and stated that "nothing has happened" since then to alter the situation between them. The Arsenal manager will also be conscious, of course, that disputes with the Scot are becoming absurd now that their clubs both trail so far behind Jose Mourinho's team in the Premiership.

It may just be professionalism that stops him from admitting that a 10-point gap is insuperable. "If you think like that you will lose a bit of concentration and suddenly you are in the middle of the table," Wenger observed. "We have to take the Chelsea situation as a challenge and make it as tough as we can for them. We have to get the best out of ourselves."

Conscious of the manner in which his teamdrew several matches before finally clinching the 2004 Premiership with an unbeaten record, he remarked that: "What looks like an invulnerable machine can sometimes become vulnerable within a week."

Though he intended to point out that Chelsea might develop fallibility, he raised thoughts of the manner in which his side have stumbled along ever since being beaten at Old Trafford in October. "We lost points we shouldn't have. You don't always have a season like the one we had last year, but we also have a much younger squad. I am frustrated. All the additions to the Chelsea team did not make us draw with Manchester City or West Bromwich Albion. We have to look at ourselves."

In the seven full seasons he has enjoyed at Highbury before this one, Arsenal have always finished as champions or runners-up. At present, Chelsea are disappearing over the horizon and Arsenal can feel on their necks the hot breath of United, only a point behind in third place.

Wenger denies that this has been his toughest season in England, but in the years to come, with far smaller means than either of his rivals, he will be tested more severely than ever before.