Wenger to fight for stars

Arsene Wenger has vowed to fight to keep star pair Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri from exiting the club this summer.

Fabregas' future remains unclear, with the saga surrounding his mooted move to Barcelona set to roll on, while Nasri has been linked with a £20 million switch to Premier League rivals Manchester United.

"Our position is always the same, we want to keep Cesc and I will fight as hard as I can to keep him," Wenger told the official Arsenal website. "Samir Nasri is exactly the same. We will do everything we can to keep him."

Nasri is expected to travel to Malaysia with the team on Sunday for their two-match tour of Asia, but Fabregas is carrying an injury and will remain in England.

"We will take the strongest possible squad," said Wenger. "Fabregas will not travel because he still has a small muscular problem. He will stay and practice here. There is a doubt about [Emmanuel] Eboue who has done his calf."

Meanwhile, Wenger confirmed that striker Gervinho is on the verge of joining the London club from French side Lille, and also explained that he understands the frustration of Arsenal supporters regarding summer transfer talk.

"We are working very hard on it," he told Arsenal.com. "For me, the best thing is not to talk too much about it. The more you speak about things, the less chance you have to achieve them. The only thing that I can promise you is that we will work very hard and we have had some long nights to achieve what we want to achieve.

"I can understand [the impatience among the fans]. Believe me, I know all the clubs in the world and everybody needs the same players for the same positions. If there were an obvious choice, people would have already made their decisions. We are at the top level and therefore need exceptional quality to strengthen our side. I can understand that people say 'you have money, just go out and buy'. But it's not only that, we want to find the quality we need.

"I have said many times that we were very close to winning things last season, despite the disappointment we had at the end. I hope that provokes a response from my players. We were so close this time we want to come back and achieve it.

"My responsibility is first of all not to lose players and then to add and make us stronger. Let's hope we can bring in one or two more additions of top quality."