Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has aimed a sly dig at Antonio Conte by insisting the Chelsea boss should deal with his small squad by recalling loan players.

Conte has repeatedly expressed his frustration at a paucity of options ahead of a campaign in which they will compete on four fronts after winning last season's Premier League title.

The Blues have bought Alvaro Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Antonio Rudiger so far but listed just 24 first-team players for last Sunday's Community Shield defeat to the Gunners.

Wenger, by contrast, is looking to offload players to streamline a bloated squad and he said: "I have sympathy for him. But do I feel sorry for Chelsea as they don't have enough problems? Then no.

"Maybe he has the opposite problem [to me]. But if you look at the number of players on loan, they can call a few back."

Arsenal kick-off the new Premier League season on Friday night against a Leicester City side likely to contain Riyad Mahrez.

The winger has long been linked with a move to Emirates Stadium - primarily as an alternative option to Monaco's Thomas Lemar - but Wenger insists he would not offer anything different to his existing squad.

"We were never close... I rate him as a player but we have similar types with [Alex] Iwobi and [Jack] Wilshere back. [With] Ozil [too], we have plenty of the same type of players.”