Arsene Wenger has confidence in forward players for North London derby

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has insisted that his side has enough firepower to beat Tottenham Hotspur in the North London derby, even without Alexis Sanchez.

The Chile international has scored 18 goals for the Gunners this season, but has been ruled out of action due to a hamstring injury that also forced him to miss his side's 5-0 win over Aston Villa last week.

Wenger has admitted that the number of attacking options at his disposal have declined after allowing certain players to leave the club, but is confident he can find the right blend to fire his team to victory over their bitter rivals.

He told reporters: "For me, the challenge is to find the balance between creative players and the real strikers. We had too many players because think of who was available.

"Now [Lukas] Podolski is out on loan, so is [Yaya] Sanogo and [Joel] Campbell, and still we do not have [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain. So you could see that at the start of the season, I had even more offensive power. All the teams at the top have great offensive power - [Manchester] City, Chelsea, Liverpool, [Manchester] United.

"Getting that one player right gives you the efficiency, and it is not always a player who makes headlines, someone glamorous, most of the time it is a player who works in the dark and who has a real team attitude."

Arsenal are fifth in the Premier League going into their match against Spurs later today at White Hart Lane.