London: Despite making their worst start to a season for 58 years, Arsenal could still pick up momentum and challenge for the Premier League title, manager Arsene Wenger said on Friday.
"Of course I am worried," said Wenger, whose team trail Premier League leaders Manchester United by 11 points. "It is absolutely not realistic not to be worried when you have a team like Manchester United in front of you."
"But the only thing we can do is focus on our performances, win our games and hope they will drop some points at some stage."
"What is important for us is to give absolutely everything to do it (win the title), but at the moment it is too early to speak about that."
"Let's come back to a better distance with the top teams before we speak about that. If the team gets momentum, we can be very strong."
Arsenal lie 17th, one place above the relegation zone, after securing four points from a possible 15. One of their three defeats was an 8-2 loss at Manchester United last month.
In contrast, United top the table after winning their five opening matches, with victories over Chelsea, as well as Arsenal, already under their belts.
Arsenal have not finished outside the top four since 1996, the season before Wenger's arrival, and despite their poor start the Frenchman retains complete faith in his men, even though he was highly critical of the way they defended at Blackburn Rovers in last week's 4-3 defeat.
Wenger, speaking before out-of-form Bolton Wanderers visit Arsenal on Saturday, said recent weeks had taken their toll on his side.
"I still believe we paid a very heavy price for the Udinese game in the Champions League play-off, where we didn't get any credit at all. Today, they are top of the Italian league."
Arsenal came from behind to beat Udinese 2-1 in the second leg of the play-offs on August 24 and qualify for the Champions League, where they began their group matches with a 1-1 draw at Borussia Dortmund.
"We had to give absolutely everything against Borussia Dortmund and in the second half at Blackburn you could see that," Wenger added.
"Our start of the season was disturbed by the transfers (of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri) and by the fact that we had to qualify for the Champions League. We lost a lot of energy in those games."
Arsenal, though, should beat Bolton on Saturday with Owen Coyle's men having lost their last four league games, although they were boosted by Tuesday's 2-0 win at Aston Villa in the League Cup.
Meanwhile, the club's England winger Theo Walcott said Arsenal's poor start to the season is the fault of the players and not that of manager Arsene Wenger.
Their bad start has triggered criticism from fans demanding Wenger be sacked after almost 15 years in the job.
However, Walcott told Absolute Radio on Friday: "The boss is a great man, he can deal with anything thrown at him."
"He's been at the club for 15 years and so he's not under any pressure at all. Us players, we need to look at ourselves and start doing it on the pitch, to be honest."
"A lot of people say about the defensive sort of issue but it's not just the back four, you need to look at defending as a whole team."
"We haven't managed to do that, to be honest, so we need to make sure we're at it against Bolton at the weekend."
"It's going to be a tough game. They have come from a good result during mid-week"
"We've got a few home games and that's important for us now, to have our home support. The boss can deal with anything."
Arsenal lost 4-3 at Blackburn Rovers in the league last week and were trailing League Two (fourth division) Shrewsbury Town before beating them 3-1 in the League Cup on Tuesday.
Bolton, meanwhile, won 2-0 at Aston Villa in the League Cup on the same night, but their chances of victory at Arsenal are remote judging by past results as they have not won there in a league match since January 1962.
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