Arsenal exercise their options

Arsenal's shirts this season bear a new sponsor's name, Dreamcast, though nobody seems quite sure what it means. All one can suggest is that Arsene Wenger is very close to assembling one.

Last season's squad clearly lacked the quality in depth to meet the increasing demands of what constitutes an average season for Premiership nobility these days, and the manager has been hard at work this summer ensuring his men are in a position to challenge not only for the title but for the Champions League too.

Thanks to Real Madrid's generous £23 million donation towards the upkeep of Nicolas Anelka's ego, Wenger has been able to invest heavily in quality and experience, drafting in cover at full back, in midfield and, most significantly, up front, where the signing of Thierry Henry and Davor Suker - still awaiting the arrival of a work permit and match fitness - promises to add pace and poaching power to the established wit and wiles of Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars and Nwankwo Kanu.

The end result is more attacking options than Arsenal have ever had during Wenger's reign. And Bergkamp, for one, is impressed. "When you look at the squad now and the amount of players who can score goals and win games for us, it's amazing," said the Dutchman after Saturday's win. "This is the biggest squad with the biggest names we've had in my five years here and that has to give you confidence. When the manager can put another player on who has every chance of scoring it makes a big difference to the way you approach matches.

"It will be a demanding season, so we need a squad like this. Last year we didn't have that depth. We played games without five or six key players and couldn't fill in. But now we've got the players who can fill that breach. That could make the difference for us."

It certainly helped on Saturday. Arsenal find it difficult at Highbury because of the narrow pitch, when teams like Leicester come to defend. They even went ahead when Arsenal failed to cut out Steve Guppy's left-wing cross and Tony Cottee pounced from his favourite six yards to put Leicester on course for only their second win at Highbury in 19 visits.

As it turned out, it was Leicester's only meaningful chance of the game.

Arsenal, on the other hand, created plenty but forced the breakthrough only following the arrival of Henry at half-time, a substitute for the limping Fredrik Ljungberg, and Overmars for Ray Parlour on 65 minutes.

Their extra pace meshed well with the trickery and perception of Kanu and Bergkamp in the centre and eventually opened up cracks in a Leicester side for whom the epithets workmanlike and well-organised are as good as it gets.

First Martin Keown's long ball forward was knocked backwards by substitute Gerry Taggart, falling perfectly for Bergkamp who, with two sublime touches, found the net.

Then in injury-time Leicester's new goalkeeper Tim Flowers saved well from Bergkamp, only to watch an opening-day nightmare unfold as, from the ensuing corner, Henry's header towards goal was diverted into his own net by the distraught Frank Sinclair.

Leicester's cause was not helped when Steve Walsh was carried off with a groin injury after 18 minutes - he could be out for a while - and Emile Heskey had to retire with a less serious neck injury.

Arsenal's medical bulletin reports that Tony Adams is due to return from injury in three weeks and David Seaman in two. That will complete the Arsenal cast.

All they have to do then is remember their script.

ARSENAL: Manninger, Dixon, Winterburn, Vieira, Keown, Ljungberg (Henry 46), Bergkamp (Silvinho 90), Parlour (Overmars 64), Petit, Grimandi, Kanu. Subs Not Used: Upson, Lukic. Booked: Grimandi, Silvinho. Goals: Bergkamp 65, Sinclair 90 og.

LEICESTER: Flowers, Sinclair, Walsh (Taggart 18), Izzet, Lennon, Heskey (Marshall 43), Guppy, Savage, Elliott, Impey, Cottee. Subs Not Used: Arphexad, Oakes, Zagorakis. Booked: Elliott, Sinclair. Goals: Cottee 57.

Referee: A Wilkie (Chester-le-Street).