The Gunners have misfired since the 'Battle of Old Trafford' when Manchester United ended the champions' unbeaten English Premiership run at 49 matches.

Though Wenger has his sights on winning the Champions League as well as retaining their domestic crown, his side threw away a winning lead for a third successive European match when Panathinaikos earned a 1-1 draw and also missed a penalty.

"I feel we have a little dip physically and we need to recover a little bit," said Wenger after the draw with the Greek champions.

"We are going through a little period where physically we suffer a bit but I'm confident that we'll come back and the mental strength and the quality of the players is strong enough to come back. It is in our hands.

"We have lost one game in the whole season and we know we can play better going forward and we will again. If we panic the whole of Europe should panic."

Arsenal have four matches to shrug off their lethargy before travelling to Champions League Group E leaders PSV Eindhoven, with sorties to Crystal Palace and north London rivals Tottenham, a home match against strugglers West Bromwich plus the visit of Everton in the League Cup.

English Premiership rivals Chelsea can boast of two international players in every outfield position and Blues manager Jose Mourinho is beginning the first rotation of his squad, fielding those who have thus far sat on the sidelines.

While Chelsea have oil tycoon Roman Abramovich's vast fortune to spend, Wenger has had to be thrifty in his purchases and plough his investment into the youth team as the new Emirates Stadium project eats up the budget.

Wenger's second string consists of highly talented but very inexperienced youngsters and though 17-year-old midfielder Cesc Fabregas is tipped to star for Arsenal and Spain for years to come, there is no guarantee his peers will blend into the first team as successfully.

Arsenal have the chance to get their season back on track in Saturday's trip over the Thames to newly-promoted Palace and Wenger may risk throwing in a few starlets to re-energise their season.

England centre-half Sol Campbell is certain to miss out, still struggling with an achilles injury that has ruled him out of all but six games this season.