ARSENE WENGER has voiced fears that Arsenal’s best players could follow Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri out of the Emirates Stadium because the club cannot match the salaries on offer elsewhere.

Arsenal have opened contract talks with Theo Walcott, Alex Song and Robin van Persie but the manager said there is no guarantee he will be able to persuade them to stay.

Discussions are also due to begin with the defender Thomas Vermaelen.

Fabregas was the club’s highest earner on €103,000 a week before he departed in the summer for Barcelona, and Nasri turned down the same amount before leaving for Manchester City, where he trebled his earnings. Gael Clichy also vastly improved his wages by joining City.

Wenger acknowledged it was crucial to the club’s prospects that new deals are signed by Song, Van Persie, Walcott and Vermaelen. “We will try but we tried before (with Fabregas and Nasri),” he said.

“The gap on that front has become bigger for us so I cannot today say if we go to the maximum we are sure to sign a player – even if we do that we are not sure.”

Mikel Arteta took a pay cut to complete his move to Arsenal from Everton last month, and Wenger said it was difficult to persuade star players that a promised land does not exist elsewhere. “We try to convince them,” he said. “Our desire is there to do it and we are ready to sit down with them.”

Song will have two years remaining in the summer, but Van Persie, Vermaelen and Walcott will have only a year left to run, alongside Andrey Arshavin. Wenger denied the success of Fabregas and Nasri at their respective new clubs could also make it harder to keep players.

“Frankly I never believed that,” he said. “I always said Cesc is a bargain. With Nasri at least we got a reasonable price (€28.5m) for a player with one year to go.

“(With) Cesc we were forced into a situation because for me he is one of the best midfielders in the world and we knew we would sell him under what he’s worth (potentially €40m).”

Arsenal host Bolton Wanderers today sitting fourth-bottom after a difficult start to the season that has featured defeats to Liverpool, Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers. Wenger’s team will be bottom if they lose and West Bromwich Albion draw with Fulham.

Johan Djourou and Yossi Benayoun have muscular problems and will miss Bolton’s visit but Tomas Rosicky, Aaron Ramsey and Bacary Sagna are in the squad, as is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The 18-year-old impressed in Tuesday’s win over Shrewsbury Town and Wenger offered a comparison between him and Walcott.

“I see Walcott more as a striker and Chamberlain more as a midfielder.”